Thursday, March 13, 2025

An Optimistic Beginning


 Right now it’s just a small swatch, but I hope eventually it will become the inspiration for a summer cardigan. The yarn is a cotton/linen blend, and the color is a denim-y blue.

Last autumn I was watching The Marlow Murder Club on PBS, and I was taken by the wardrobe of the lead character. A ‘woman of a certain age’ (although I suspect less of an age than I am!), who dressed attractively in clothing that suited her and the life she leads. I was particularly smitten by a crocheted cardigan, and decided I could use something similar in my own wardrobe.

My first thought was to suss out the exact stitches used in her garment and copy the style of her cardigan. Go big or go home, right? And I did find two stitch patterns that echo very closely the stitches used in the inspiration piece, but discovered that actually working them didn’t give me much pleasure. I was also concerned that I would have trouble working out smooth shaping in those particular stitches. So, I made the sensible decision to go my own way and try something that works for me and my life, climate, etc., etc.

It will take a while, and I may not get there in the end, but here I am, all optimistic and ready to begin.

And, as a comparison, here is a swatch of the stitches I think may have been used in the original:



Lovely patterns, but that spider web stitch would have given me fits in any neckline shaping.

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