{"id":9352,"date":"2018-05-16T12:41:55","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T10:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tiinakasitoo.wordpress.com\/?page_id=1178"},"modified":"2026-08-29T02:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T02:04:47","slug":"minu-kampsun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/minu-kampsun\/","title":{"rendered":"My cardigan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

Once I got going with the knitting, I really went for it and knitted for everyone. Vests for the boys, a cardigan for my daughter-in-law, and then I suddenly got a strong urge to make something for myself too. I remembered that a very long time ago I had knitted myself a cardigan that I thought was really beautiful, and I wanted so badly to make the same one again, just about 30 years later. I rummaged through all my craft pages and all sorts of stuff, but I simply couldn\u2019t find it. And then, miracle of miracles, heaven knows what I was actually looking for, but I happened to look through a 1989 issue of Laste Siluett, and there it was: my cardigan.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I rushed straight to Karnaluks to buy yarn. Wool, of course, proper rustic wool. Except I didn\u2019t come home with rustic wool after all. It was just far too thin and simply wouldn\u2019t do. I didn\u2019t want to spend too much money either, naturally I was after something cheaper! This time, though, I hardened my heart and bought something a little more expensive. I\u2019m worth something too, after all. One ball was nearly four euros, but if you buy ten at once it\u2019s cheaper. I took five white and five red. I assumed that would be enough, with some left over too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m writing down how I made it so that if anyone looking at this gets the urge to make a cardigan like this for themselves, there\u2019ll be some guidance here and perhaps they can avoid the mistakes I made. Let\u2019s be honest, ripping knitting back is not exactly the most enjoyable or inspiring activity \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh heavens, once I started knitting I discovered that this yarn stretches. Just brilliant. I actually had to make tension swatches. The label did say how many stitches and rows made 10 cm, and my swatch said exactly the same. Still, there\u2019s that saying: trust, but check \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, knitting. The instructions say this is a labour-intensive and time-consuming cardigan, and perhaps a bit difficult for a beginner. Apparently I\u2019m not much of a beginner, although there was still plenty of ripping back. If I didn\u2019t rip things back, I wouldn\u2019t be me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I started with the back. I made the scalloped section in white because I didn\u2019t have any pink and, besides, pink is not the colour for a lady over 50. Red and white are!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is one terribly big flaw in my knitting. I always knit the wrong-side rows more loosely than the right-side rows. I\u2019ve tried every possible way to make them even, but I just can\u2019t. It shows especially clearly where the white and red meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the stitch patterns. Let\u2019s just say the chart for the leaf pattern isn\u2019t especially well done, so I adjusted it a little for myself. Take row six, for example. There is absolutely no point knitting that row in purl. Why should there be a stripe there? There shouldn\u2019t, so I knitted it, like all the other even-numbered rows. On the chart, all the decreases are shown as knit two together. On the right side I used a right-leaning decrease by slipping a stitch, and on the left I usually knitted two together. There was some other mistake with the stitch count somewhere too, but I didn\u2019t make a note of it at the time and now I can\u2019t remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Bobble stitches go inside the white triangle. The chart says to work them together knitwise on the return row. That\u2019s how I started, but only on the first row. After that I worked them together purlwise. I didn\u2019t think they looked nice when knitted together knitwise. The difference is very easy to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a0The front pieces went more easily, almost more easily. Naturally I failed to notice that the leaf section starts without ribbing. Nothing for it, I had to rip it back… and not just a little. I noticed far too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Naturally I nearly drove myself mad working out the front band. Looking at the drawing, it seems to me as though it\u2019s knitted in stocking stitch. But that doesn\u2019t look right. Garter stitch isn\u2019t right either. I tried this and that and eventually made it in rib. That has one major problem: the cardigan itself is knitted in reverse stocking stitch, so a fold forms and the band desperately wants to turn itself back. I have no idea how I\u2019m going to solve that. I also ran into trouble with the buttonholes. I didn\u2019t work out the spacing properly and I didn\u2019t make one near the neckline at the top. I decided to put a buttonhole into the neckband instead. We\u2019ll see what comes of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the red and white meet, I crossed the yarns over each other. \"wp_20180419_11_06_37_pro_li.jpg\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is what it looks like from the wrong side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I didn\u2019t know how to make the pocket either. Once again, the Drops website came to the rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the pocket is red, on the white section of the cardigan I knitted the first stitch at pocket height in red all the way up to the scallops, then carried on in white. Later I attached the pocket there with red yarn. There was quite a lot of measuring and row counting involved to make sure the pockets ended up at the same height. And then more measuring when I sewed them on…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the front pieces finished, it was time to start the sleeves. There was nothing new there any more, apart from the pattern inside the white triangle. There were no instructions for that, so I copied it from the picture. The sleeve width and length gave me something to think about too. We\u2019ll see once I\u2019ve sewn it all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the white section of the sleeve, on the final row of the leaf, I started with a bobble. On the last row of each bobble, in other words the decrease row, I started a new bobble. I left one purl stitch between each bobble. To finish the bobbles I knitted two stitches together, then three stitches together, then the final two stitches together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next I sewed the pockets on. I managed to get them nicely level with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then it was time to start embroidering. Back to Karnaluks I went. They didn\u2019t have embroidery thread in the colours I wanted. I came home with pastel shades, but perhaps that\u2019s actually better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These pictures of mine have survived in such dreadful quality too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the back I worked from that poor-quality picture. I improved the pattern for the front on the computer and made a mirrored version as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The embroidery most certainly did not go smoothly, far from it… That back section just isn\u2019t what it should be. I desperately wanted to rip it all out because the colours aren\u2019t what I wanted. I thought I\u2019d finish the front pieces first and then undo the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ripping out the embroidery on the front \ud83d\ude42 In fact I undid even more of it. I partly took out the pink section too, because in an attempt to make it brighter I had used a vivid red that I ended up disliking intensely. Then I ripped out the blue flowers as well, whether they were meant to be bluebells or forget-me-nots. Once finished, the dark blue simply seemed too much to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t rip out the embroidery on the back. I\u2019m starting to give up on the whole thing… \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once the embroidery was finished and I was more or less happy with it, I started making the scallops around the armhole. I made them and ripped them back because I couldn\u2019t get the grafting right. I was close to tears because I just couldn\u2019t make it look neat. To be honest, I\u2019m still not happy with how it turned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next I made a row of scallops along the front band. Laugh or cry, but it went all wavy. When picking up stitches, I did pick up only five stitches for every six. And this was the result…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So I ripped it out again. Unfortunately I had already grafted it closed as well. The good news for me was that the grafted yarn could simply be pulled out, and by now I\u2019m probably better at undoing knitting than I am at knitting it \ud83d\ude42 I did it again, this time picking up four stitches for every five. The needle is still in it for now, so I can\u2019t yet tell whether it\u2019s going to wave or not…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I made these scallops differently from the ones around the armhole. I still started from the wrong side of the work, knitted four rows in red, then on the fifth row worked the scallop row in white: two together, yarn over, two together and so on, followed by another four rows in red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It really does make me want to swear. It\u2019s still wavy, although only a little. I\u2019m not ripping it out again, it\u2019ll have to do. The whole edge is ugly anyway. Maybe steaming will help, and the buttons too. Oh heavens, I still have to make those buttons. Six buttons. Couldn\u2019t I have made the gaps bigger or something? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m starting to think that when the instructions say this project is too difficult for a beginner knitter, I actually feel like a beginner. Even though I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After making that edge, I turned to the neckline. I ripped it back twice. I realised I should have made the ribbed part of the neckband first and then worked the scallops both around the neck and down the front edge. Instead I fiddled about until I somehow managed to get a scalloped row onto the front edge of the neckband too. Honestly, at one point I thought to hell with it, this was going to become one of those projects that never gets finished. I do have a few of those, although they\u2019re small things, things I started for babies and for some reason never completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finished the neckband, sewed up the sleeves and set them in. That didn\u2019t exactly go easily either. I spent ages staring at the sleeve, trying to work out which way round it had to go so it would be easy to attach under the scalloped row. But I got there in the end and managed to sew it in. With one sleeve attached, I tried the cardigan on. My motivation shot straight up because I liked it. For the second sleeve I marked the centre of the shoulder and the centre of the underarm, then measured carefully so it would match the other sleeve. The white section has to sit at the same height on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oh yes, I also threaded yarn through the pocket edges to tighten them. The scalloped row on the pocket had gone wavy, probably because of the ribbing underneath. I threaded yarn through the shoulder seam too so it wouldn\u2019t stretch. I don\u2019t like shoulders that end up halfway down the arm \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I steamed it, and this is what it looks like at the moment. The buttons are still missing, but I\u2019ll do my best to get those finished quickly too. Six buttons aren\u2019t exactly an enormous amount to make, but…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am so thoroughly fed up with making this cardigan. I\u2019ve had enough of it, to put it mildly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here are my buttons for the cardigan. One worse than the next, apart from the one on the neckband, which I bought from a shop. I\u2019ve made the buttons myself for all my knitted things, so I have plenty of experience and practice, but these simply did not turn out. I made more than I needed, so I\u2019ll choose the least bad ones from the less bad ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WOOHOO, FINISHED! Buttons on and everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now I just need to go on a diet or get myself a corset and I can wear it \ud83d\ude42 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve already started something new, but this time it\u2019s crochet rather than knitting, and it isn\u2019t for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n<\/trp-tag>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once I got going with the knitting, I really went for it and knitted for everyone. Vests for the boys, a cardigan for my daughter-in-law, and then I suddenly got a strong urge to make something for myself too. I remembered that a very long time ago I had knitted myself a cardigan that I\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tiina_en_title":"My cardigan","footnotes":""},"categories":[404,205,27],"tags":[373,228,253,369,372,370,371],"class_list":["post-9352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kampsunid-vestid-pluusid-seelikud-ja","category-kudumine-kasitoovotted","category-riided","tag-isetehtud","tag-kampsun","tag-kootud","tag-noobid","tag-punane","tag-tikitud","tag-valge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9352"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10771,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9352\/revisions\/10771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogi.tiinabutiik.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}