Studio Marlowe

Lately I’ve been taken with the idea of projects that are fairly simple in their construction, but with a few original details and a lot of attention to fit.  The simplicity concept is appealing because I’ve been finding the rest of my life is pretty crowded with work and people and my knitting time is sporadic and often not of the highest quality.  Intricate color or cable charts, while fun, seem a little less alluring if you can often only knit: in 10-15 minute stretches, while on the phone with your mother/father/sibling/friend, at the very end of the day when you’re dead tired.  An added bonus is that simpler pieces often tend to be more versatile, so I can get more wear out of all those hours spent on garment construction.  Hopefully one of these days I’ll get back to the more complicated things, but for now, simple is it:

I’ve conceived this latest project as a fairly straightforward short-sleeved stockinette cardigan, perfect for cool spring mornings, or layering over long sleeves in slightly chillier weather.  A few of my favorite all purpose sweaters have finally started biting the dust recently (and after years of hard wear, I can’t say I’m too surprised), so it’s high time to work up replacements like this one. The yarn is a Berrocco 50/50 wool/alpaca blend, in a gorgeous purple color that I am currently unable to get the camera to capture properly (oh well). It’s super soft and I can tell this is going to make a great layer for keeping my core warm in chillier weather.

A while back I posted that I was working on a navy wrap cardigan.  Then I dropped off the radar, blogwise.  With regards to this particular project though, that’s not such a bad thing.  Dark colors are nearly impossible to photograph so I would have been boring you, dear readers, with a lot of shots of a dark knitted mass.  Not so hot.

However, I am now returned from my blogging hiatus (I hope) and guess what?  While I was gone, I finished that wrap:

Apologies for the weird angle and grotty mirror, I will rig up a good self-timer set up again soon, promise!

This cardi is definitely one of those projects that turned out just as well as anything I was envisioning in my head during the design and early knitting phases.  It fits like a dream: nice and form fitting without being too tight, and the fit is really perfect pretty much everywhere.  If I were making it again (and I plan to), I would not change a thing.  This is also definitely an example of how if you pick the right yarn and take the time to figure out the perfect gauge for what you want in a finished sweater, the hardest work is pretty much done for you.  As far as knitting skills required go, this cardigan was very simple, even mindless to knit.  But the merino/angora blend and the slightly loose gauge combined to create a soft fabric with just the perfect amount of drape. It also goes through the delicate cycle of my washing machine with no ill effects.  I took a lot of notes and am thinking I may be making another in a lighter color as soon as I can identify some appropriate yarn.

Details, such as they are:

Pattern: My own, general style is top-down raglan

Size: Technically designed to have a 32″ finished bust, fits my roughly 36″ bust perfectly

Yarn: Colourmart UK 4/16NM DK weight 75% merino/25% angora, 660 yards/150g, in a navy color

Gauge:

Needles: US 5 for everything except the ties, which were on a US 1.