Finally, it's the golden vintage cardigan all done! It took a month and a half for me to finally decide which buttons to put on it. I went with the little vintage-looking pearl buttons, which, it turns out, are just a smidge too small for the buttonholes. I've worked some buttonhole stitch around the buttonholes to make them snugger, but a few of the buttons still pop open. It's good enough for posing, but if I want this thing to stay closed while I actually move, I'm gonna need to do a few more rounds of buttonhole stitch. It's okay. I wasn't a fan of the buttonholes anyway. Next time, on a sweet cardi like this, I think I'll skip making buttonholes and add little loops to the buttonhole button band instead.

The other final touch that I dragged my feet on was the lovely attached collar detail.

When Thea originally knit this sweater, she added the baby cables from the bottom and the button bands to the neckline. She changed it to a plain attached i-cord for the pdf version, but once I'd seen it on the original, I knew I wanted mine to have the cable there too. It wasn't hard to make, I just put it off, oddly bitter that I had to knit a separate band and sew it on. What can I say? I like picking up stitches, you know? But this band needs to run lengthwise across the neck, so it's knit separately. Suck it up, Alison.

I love this cardi! Since I changed the yarn from a worsted weight cotton to the light and lovely Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, the resulting sweater is more dainty and delicate. The not-so-solid quality of the Silky Wool really adds to the vintage feel, as well, I think. Despite my change in gauge, I didn't change the size that I knitted, so the sweater is also much more fitted, just the way I wanted it.

The baby cables are sweet. The three-quarter sleeves are darling. And it's all done. An early happy birthday present to me!

While still stymied by the decision over which buttons to put on my babycables cardi, I thought I'd move on to finish up all the little baby sweaters I had in progress. I managed three and then found myself in the same situation again.

It's time for the embroidery on wee one's bonbon cardigan and a search through my stash came up with too many choices! The original pattern picture shows sweet baby blue, chartreusey green, and orangey pink flower details. I've got those colors. Problem is, I've also got a fun, bright blue, a lighter, grassier green, and a rosier pink that would all look fine too. Plus, there's all the purpley, lavender choices. The original pattern sweater is done in a pale purple, whereas mine is pink so that pretty much leaves all the purples wide open as even more options.

This morning, my babycables vintage cardi, wee one and I visited Thea (Ms. Babycables herself!) and her awesome button stash to see if we couldn't find the perfect buttons for my sweater. I was looking for something sort of vintage-y that wouldn't draw too much attention away from the cable detail along the button bands. What do you think?

Dainty red fabric-covered buttons.

Pretty pretty pearl and silver buttons.

Or simple peachy iridescent buttons.

Did I say I'd have a finished babycables cardigan for you today? What I meant to say was "one sleeve in and the other half knit". I always mix those up.

Things were going swimmingly until I ran out of yarn (a huge thanks to Sarah who quickly sent more that she just happened to have in my same dyelot!) and then realized that my row gauge was so far off that my sleeve cap was perfectly sized for my daughter and not me. Poop. I love the way the sweater is coming out at my slightly smaller gauge - it fits all nice and snug - but a mini sleeve cap just will not do. So out it went and I made up something a bit longer. And I had to sew it in and try it on before I could start the second sleeve. So you see, I couldn't possibly finish the sweater in time for this week.

Having learned nothing from my failure to fulfill my rash promise of last week, I will end by saying, see you next Monday with a finished sweater!

Do you love tweed like I do? Really? Cause I am immediately drawn to it in the stores. All those little flecks of color, the rustic look of the yarn. There's simply nothing else like it. But I don't actually knit with a lot of tweed. It's too often scratchy and the flecks and texture tend to overwhelm any interesting patterning. Take the babycable vintage cardigan I'm working on right now. I originally started the sweater in another yarn, a tweed. Because... I love tweed. I had some Rowan felted tweed in my stash that has been long awaiting a perfect project. I thought I'd found it.

compare this with the silky wool

Love the yarn, but not in this pattern. You can't see the little baby cables at all. Drat! I ended up choosing Lavold Silky Wool because it had a similar character - rustic with slubs of color - but was more truly a solid and therefore better able to show off the details of the sweater. And so the felted tweed went back into the stash.

What's got me thinking about tweed is Nancy Thomas' new book, Tweed: More Than 20 Contemporary Designs to Knit.

I was so excited when I heard about this book. I loved the look of it. I was fascinated by the idea of it. I couldn't wait to get my hands in it. (Is this sounding familiar?) But I think what I was expecting was something like Clara Parkes' The Knitter's Book of Yarn just all about tweed yarns. Oh, how we've been spoiled by Clara's book! It's incredibly informative, it's interesting and practical, and the patterns are great. I can't decide if the Tweed book just pales a little in comparison or if, perhaps, I don't, in fact, like tweed as much as I thought I do. I could almost sense it right as I sat down and started in with the book; this is what happens to me with tweed yarn. I can't keep myself away from it in the yarn store, but when I sit down to knit with it, I end up wanting it to be less tweedy and more like some cashmerino yarn that's always perfectly smooth and lovely.

The Tweed book begins well, with an opening chapter on the history of tweed yarns, where we learn that "the formation of tweed...is a story about woven fabric, not knit fabric." Interesting. There's a description of the rustic, homespun fabrics originally made in the countrysides of the British Isles and worn to resist the harsh weather. Thomas explains that so-called "tweed" yarn was spun for these fabrics but eventually took the name itself. And the flecks, we discover in a blurb accompanying a photograph, were first created by accident! This is a nice little introduction, but it's over in a page. The end. Wait, I want to hear more! But Thomas moves on to briefly describe how the wool is made and how to handle it. If you've read The Knitter's Book of Yarn, there won't be anything new here, except maybe a nice page on felting, something that would be done with tweed yarns more than other yarns. Funnily enough, just when I started to get annoyed about not hearing more about the history or the production process, another beautiful picture of gorgeous tweeds would always appear. Drool. What were you saying?

Next, Thomas gives us a chapter full of stitch patterns to use with tweed yarn or to produce a tweedy effect. Even she seems to agree that tweed is a difficult animal. She includes several tips for working with tweed to keep it from getting too stiff or hiding your stitch patterns or getting out of shape. Finally, here, we get the full story of the nepps or flecks so typical of tweed yarns. And then we get to the patterns. Lots of tweedy patterns, just like you'd expect.

stunning scarves

big, textured sweaters

and some stylish tweed as well

There's some standard patterns thrown in amongst the rest just like there's some disjointed info thrown in amongst the rest in the beginning. I think what it comes down to is that if you really like Tweed (real tweed), you're probably a pretty traditional knitter and you'll find plenty of patterns here to suit you. I'm realizing that I tend to go in for the newer breed of tweeds, those that are blends with sophisticated color choices: Jo Sharp Silkroad Tweeds, Rowan felted tweed, Jaeger's luxury tweed. Maybe they're faux tweeds. Nancy Thomas actually includes many yarns in the book that aren't real tweeds, including some variegated yarns and others with plies of different colors. She's broadening the definition of tweed, I think, to include a lot of the tweed wannabes out there like me. And there's just enough interesting information, pretty pictures, and contemporary designs to satisfy us posers too.

So, reading this book, I learned a little bit about tweed and a little bit more about myself as a knitter. Conclusion: it isn't easy being tweed.

Thea's golden vintage cardigan, now with two fronts and the beginnings of a sleeve. And to think that I started this last Sunday! Can you tell that I'm enjoying it? All that stockinette, all that pretty pretty red Silky Wool, how could I not? My yarn seems to be holding out as well. I started with two skeins for the back, then found two and half more from fellow Knitsmith Johanna. I've just started the very last skein on this sleeve, so I have high hopes that I won't need any more yarn (which would save me the trouble of introducing yet another dye lot into this sweater). Fingers crossed!

See ya next Monday with a finished sweater!

I am not putting this babycables vintage cardigan down! As soon as I could start knitting last night, I cast on for the first front. I adore the little cable detail along the button band. And there's also some very subtle waist shaping that you might be able to spy on the side.

The yarn I have for the fronts is a different dyelot and is looking a bit darker than the first two skeins I had. Or less red. Or something. I'm not convinced that it's too different, but I'm not entirely convinced that it's okay either. Seriously, does anyone have a couple of skeins of Lavold Silky Wool in color #24 (maybe even dyelot #370) that they could part with? I'm still knitting, but I'd reknit for the right dyelot. (What we knitters wouln't do for the right dyelot, eh?)

Knitting as much as I can each night - as much as I can without getting my sometimes achy wrist to start acting up again - I'd made good progress on my babycables vintage style cardigan (Thea's soon-to-come little golden vintage cardigan). I was determined to finish the back last night, but couldn't quite get it done. So, this morning, I put aside the laundry (folding laundry would have surely hurt my hand - wink, wink), and instead knit the shoulders to complete the back.

And that's it. That's my two skeins of Lavold Silky Wool that I had in this colorway. I am recklessly knitting from stash these days, regardless of required yarn amounts. Start it and the yarn will follow, I say. And it did. I found more Calmer for the bonbon baby cardigan. I found more Rowan denim for the little white smock cardigan. And after mentioning to the knitsmiths that I needed more Silky Wool in color #24, I found that Johanna had two skeins just down the street.

It's not exactly the same dyelot, but I'm continuing to think positive. Except that I'm pretty sure that the laundry did not put itself away during naptime.

A new project for me. Really, this one's for me!

Thea's original vintage cardigan

It's Thea's little golden vintage cardigan. Thea (a fabulous knitter and fellow knitsmith) came up with this cardigan a while ago. She's always just making up her own awesome designs like that. We begged her to write down the pattern for this one and she has! Me and a few others (like subway knitter Colleen) are test knitting her first version of the pattern. It should be up and available on her site this summer!

The yarn I'm using is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I had a couple of skeins of this in my stash and thought it had just the right look for this vintage-style cardigan. I've never knit with the Silky Wool before and am thrilled to discover that it's just as lovely to knit with as it looks. It's soft and light with so much depth in the color. And it's showing the design details of the cardigan - Thea's own baby cables - very well.

It's a lot of knitting though. After knitting only baby items for over a year, I'm a bit overwhelmed with how big an adult garment actually is. I'm going to try to knit this one as quickly as I can for fear that if I stop, I may be tempted to start six or seven new baby projects and never finish it. Go, go, go!