I've been wanting to move my blog away from Blogspot for a while but could never be bothered to actually do it. This week was the tipping point though, and I've now fully migrated over to https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . The blogspot address will remain here but all new posts will only appear at https://patsypoomakes.wordpress.com/ . There are lots of reasons for the move but my biggest one is how hard Blogger has made it for people to subscribe to receive new posts via email. It's such a basic requirement but apparently, they think it's too much to offer. I'm basing this purely on how I myself prefer to consume this stuff. I can't be arsed with feed readers anymore and emails are easy and convenient. When I receive one, if I fancy reading it, I will click through to it and, if not, I'll just delete it. Another reason is the spat between Google (owners of Blogger) and Instagram/Facebook/Meta. I don't even know if this is still the case anymore
I'm back again and today I have some knitting to show. More specifically, my Vianne cardigan. I have to admit that the knitting was finished in September last year but it stayed buttonless until last month. Oops! I originally intended for this to be part of last year's OAL2015 (Outfit ALong), hosted by Lauren and Andi Satterlund, but I went away a lot over the summer and it didn't pan out. Better late than never I guess and here she is now!
Isn't it gorgeous?! I am so absolutely in love with it that I'm planning another one already. Although I didn't actually enjoy working on it while I was knitting it. My gauge was off - because I bought the yarn under the impression that it was a DK and it was in fact an aran weight. I managed to get the right number of stitches but the rows were way out, so I had to do so much maths that it hurt my head! And rather than have measurements, the pattern works off number of rows knitted, which I had to adjust each time. What a nightmare that was!
It is clear, however, that I'm a bloody maths genius because this turned out to be my favourite fit yet as far as cardigans go.It's knitted in one piece, with the sleeve cap shaped in short rows. This is my favourite way to set in sleeves. I love watching it take shape as I work and it's the best fit as well. Just like a seamed jumper but without the seaming. Winner! And look at the mesh pattern in the back. I love everything about this cardigan! Can you tell?
We were in Siena on this day. It's a gorgeous little place! Full of wonderful shops and beautiful architecture. There's a stunning cathedral there, too. It was the only church we paid to enter the whole time we were away - we're atheists and dislike the idea of giving money to any and all churches. Although it has to be said that Italy has some of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen.
Back to Vianne. The yarn I used was Cascade 220 Superwash and it was great to work with it again.
I decided to go with only 4 buttonholes. With my tension being off, the v-neck would've looked all kinds of wrong had I used 5 buttons. I'm glad I went with my hunch. I also finished the buttonhole band with a ribbon, to give it more stability - like I did here. The button side hasn't been done yet because I didn't have time - I only finished it the day before we left! I will get round to it soon though, because it makes a huge difference.
One last thing I wanted to mention was the "tail" at the centre back. It really bothered my when I couldn't block it into oblivion and I was a little worried about how it'd look when worn. As you can see, there is a bit of a dip (well, in this photo there's something weird happening but the previous back one shows the dip properly) but it isn't a problem to me. It's the nature of the mesh pattern and there's nothing you can do about it. I think it just adds to the charm.
These last 2 photos weren't taken in Siena and are a teaser of what's to come. Can you guess where we were then?
Until next time!