Spring is Here Once Again

Yarn: Madil Absolute, 9 balls (exactly) - 1080 yards, color: Antique Pink
Needles : US #5

I bought the pink yarn completely on a whim.  Really, light pink is a difficult color to wear for me.  Not only the little girliness is not my wardrobe style, also, pink makes me look wider. I almost never wear it, and I hardly ever use it in my art.  But, just because it's not as versatile in my world doesn't mean I don't like it.  In fact, I love pink. Lately I have been dreaming of a lavender-ish pink and I have yet to find one I like, and I'm too lazy to experiment to dye one up that is exactly to my liking.  I've also come to think the color I have in mind looks better with some material (such as silk fabric) than others such as knitted wool.

Anyhow... when Elann had Absolute Madil on sale last month, I was staring at the screen thinking, "dusty pink is not a bad pink either."  The color was called Antique Pink. It had been so long since I bought any pink yarn, so it felt like it was about time. At $4/ball that has 70% wool (probably merino) and 30% cashmere, I was willing to chance it.

After I got the yarn I couldn't wait to knit it.  But into what?  My first thought was a hoodie, but the classic feminine, more lady-ish than girl-ish pink made me drop the idea of a hoodie.  So I thought about making  something to wear with a beige color spring dress as my starting point, no matter that I don't own a beige color dress. The yarn was too soft for a structured jacket, and too heavy for a light scarf. A cardigan sounded like a good choice for me.

To minimize the widening effect pink has on me, I decided to go with vertical elements, specifically ribbing.  But I'd always been very hesitant about wearing vertical ribbing sweaters beacuase its tendency to draw attention to chest area due to stretching of the ribbing.  So wider ribbing and zero to positive ease was my solution.  The idea of simple top-down raglan sweater  - my favorite, was an easy choice.

Once again I could not stick to completely basic sweater.  So I decided to swatch tiny cables and added them to the upper part of the sweater as minimum decorations.  That led to the idea of bigger cables around the waist both as decoration and as waist shaping.

All in all, it was a very simple sweater to make.  It didn't take too long.  The process was interrupted by a quick yet exhausting trip to Bay Area.  I was so very happy to get back to knitting it after I returned home.

I even started to write a pattern for it, but writing top-down raglan for multi-sizes could be tedious if there were motifs in intervals and the intervals varied from size to size.  I found that out when I began a pattern for Midsomer Sunshine, and was completely overwhelmed by having to write individual instruction for each single size at multiple points (it's still sitting there waiting for me to get the motivation to finish it.)  I think this one should be easier, but it's still more math and thinking involved than straight St st or all over stitch-motif.

Lately my new favorite thing to watch on TV while knitting is British Detective Series "Foyle's War."  It's set in WWII era, love the stories, the characters, and the clothes. It's even better than Inspector Lewis and Midsomer Murders in my opinion. I'd watched season 1-3 via Amazon Prime while knitting this cardigan.  Even Paul really likes the series too (though not loving it, he will watch Lewis, but he's not a fan of Midsomer at all.) I love the character Sam in it.  I wish I can call this sweater Sam, but I simply cannot see her wearing this pink or this style. One day I'll make a sweater that I can see her wearing.  For now, this is a pink sweater I can actually see myself wearing, 'cause the yarn is oh-so-soft.