Friday, December 07, 2012

Agnes Revisited


Hi, Knitters,
Back to some regular old posts now.....

Way last winter I quickly knit up Agnes by Melissa LaBarre in Quince & Co. Puffin in the Bark colorway. I love this roomy pullover with the side pockets and I wore it quite a bit last winter. The pocket linings are knit in Quince & Co. Osprey in the Bird's Egg colorway which is the perfect counter to Bark in my opinion. It is a fun and fast sweater pattern and it is a perfect top-down beginner skill level project to boot.

Anyway, as the temperature is dropping this winter season I looked to my Agnes again for warmth and comfort but my feelings had changed slightly about it. I was not feeling the pullover sweater as much this year. The handknit garments I will wear day after day are always cardigans. To remedy the Ages situation I dug through my stash and saw that I had an extra skein of the Puffin in the same Bark colorway. So I immediately pulled out my handy crochet hook and went to town crocheting a steek down the center line of the sweater. (There are lots of great tutorials about how to do this on youtube.)

It only took one short evening for me to crochet the steek, cut down the center of the sweater, add button bands and sew on the most beautiful cut branch buttons that I happened to have sitting in a bowl in my studio. Click here for this great shop for reasonably priced cut branch buttons.

Miraculously my Agnes cardigan looks fantastic now! I have been wearing my new version ever since.

Here is the story of my new cardigan version of Agnes in photos......











Aren't those buttons the best? I had so much fun figuring out the buttonhole band and the button band. It gave me great pleasure to see how well it turned out even though it was an afterthought. I love this squishy, woolly cardigan to no end. You should make one for yourself.

My love for 100% wool, not the superwash sort, is growing and growing by leaps and bounds lately. I have such respect and love for pure wool.

On another quick note, I noticed that a secret is now out. Click here to find out where I'll be in April 2013! I'm really excited about this one and I hope you'll join me. Spaces are limited I hear.
best, susie