It worked, that quick posting between two trays of cookies. Your great support did the rest. More than that. Thank you all!!! I was so willing to get back into the game, photos of my latest cardigan ready for being uploaded on Flickr, when I noticed the Flickr page wouldn't load... I tried ravelry, which not appeared either... our internet connection had just ceased to be. We were disconnected for almost 24 hours. What a bad timing.
But here we are again, so let me show you my Forecast, which I named Cardinal when I started knitting it with a very red yarn, renamed Mole, when I found a new wool (Puppy, British Eroika)to make it, and which I call now Traditionell (traditional), which was the comment on it when I asked my husband how he found it. Between us, I think he went for the rather neutral and descriptive comment traditionell just in the manner of "how do you like the meal?" - "It's interesting.". To be safe. Besides that, I also think the word pretty much fits to name this cardigan. So not cool or modern at all... All these bobbles!
I said, if bobbles, then bobbles it shall be, and did 5 stitch bobbles, using this great tutorial. I like how they turned out, but they only looked like this after the blocking (soaking in water, drying flat, no pins). Also I liked the rather roomy character of the original sleeve design, so I did a lot of pattern repeats (edit: instead of beginning the ribbing earlier to make them more fitting) there, and I started with the border even a bit further down as I wanted to let my hands be partly covered by the sleeves.
I took the photos on two different days, one was very sunny, why the colours are really off in the photos from that day, sorry for that.
To keep track of where I am in the pattern chart I found out this serves me well:
A pin which I insert into the paper right next to the row I have just finished. At first I thought of marking the rows with a pencil, but that would have become quite confusing after a couple of repeats.
The body I lengthened, too, by adding one pattern repeat and slightly longer ribbing. To find out which length I was happy with, while knitting I checked in the back if there was already enough fabric to achieve a certain blousiness, which I liked the cardigan to have. The fact I let disappear one stitch in the middle section did do no harm, luckily.
I know we all are alike, collecting items, like trims, fabrics or buttons, waiting for the perfect pattern or piece to use them... so you might understand that I was really excited about putting these buttons to good use, which I found almost two years ago in Sapporo (Hokkaido), in a fantastic thrift store we stumbled upon when walking around town in a snow storm. Actually the first aluminum buttons I ever saw. Quite simple and just perfect to set a contrast to that abundance of bobbles, I think.
Recently I had been out, shopping for wool, when a kind fellow knitter which I encountered in an aisle of Yuzawaya started talking to me. And asked if she may inspect the cardigan I wore... in such cases it always just happens all so quick, that I could not protest when she reached into the inside of my cardigan, to see how I attached the buttons... which led her to giving me the advice to back my buttons with small ones to prevent that certain pulling of the thread and button... and I did :)
And it really is better this way.
Details as the knitted size which is M and first appeared to be too small but turned out fine, or about the process of making, go here (for those of you who are on ravelry more photos on Flickr, just click on the first photo in this post to get into the right corner of my photostream.
Off to bed now, guess you are tired after reading this posting, too ;)
Thanks for doing so.
Bye!