I’ve been showing you a lot of FOs (finished Objects) lately so it’s high time I showed you what’s on my needles right now.

It’s another cardigan by Kim Hargreaves, also from her “North” book (the same book my Captivate cardigan was from)…

This book…

I am making the “Lovely Cardigan”, Ravelry link here ->> Lovely Cardigan

Here’s the pattern piccy from the book…

I saw this made up and modeled at the autumn Knitting and Stitching Show and loved it. Probably because I adore that shade of green!

The downside to this garment is that it’s made with the fabulous Rowan Finest yarn – a 4 ply yarn in blend of extra fine merino, cashmere and royal alpaca wool – luxurious, beautiful, soft and wonderful yarn but hideously expensive.

“But it’s only £6.49 a ball! That’s not too bad is it?!”,  you might cry.

Ermmmm, that’s for a 25g, 87 meter  tiny ball. Not the usual 50g ball – naughty misleading Rowan!

What makes this worse is that there is a misprint in the pattern book – it says you need 8 balls to make this in my size. I am very grateful to the Rowan rep in Liberty London for pointing out that said 8 x 50g balls – I actually needed 16 x 25g !! That would have come in at too much money – £103.84 for a cardigan!

I was mulling over what I could use as a substitute when I saw the chocolate brown colour, Glee, in the January sales at Liberty at half price. It wasn’t the green which I coveted (and have too much of ) but it was a rich chocolate colour that I have a gap for in my wardrobe.

I cast on 10 days ago. and, based on my tension square, upped the needle size by 0.25mm to 2.5mm and 3.25mm. If it’s a little large, that’s preferable to another slightly too tight garment.

Want to see how far I have gotten?

I have just got to the armholes on the back. Doesn’t that look good enough to be in a box of expensive chocolates?

As always with Kim Hargreaves there is attention to detail – the rib is “K1tbl,P1” with panels of ribs which match up with the cables, see?

The actual cable pattern is charted but actually just a 4 row repeat with those big cables every 16 rows so easy once you’ve gotten going.

The toughest part of the pattern,  is doing all those bobbles on the train without elbowing my fellow commuters in the face as I flail repeatedly turning the work around to purl the 4 stitch bobble.

The solution is to use  the  backwards knitting technique I first used on my Carol Cushion, working the purl stitch from the right side, going left to right. It’s neat enough for a bobble and SO much quicker and “commuter friendly”.

This is going to be on my needles a while so next week,  I’ll be back to showing you another FO (I’m nearly caught up with the backlog!) – Yes, it’s another Kim Hargreaves…