Where you get to see my first knitted garment

Hey, I'm on a roll, three posts in three days! Don't get used to it, I just happen to have some photographed yet unblogged projects. At the moment I'm quite stubborn to give the best finish ever to my vintage dress, so you'll not see me for a while until I finish it.

Anyway, today I'm here to talk about knitting. If you asked me one month ago, I would have told you that I hate knitting, because it's repetitive and not challenging for me. Big self-confidence for someone who had only knitted scarves so far.
Then I got bored when my daily routine suddenly changed, and I was in a stashbusting mood, and those skeins were looking at me and calling to be knitted. Enters the blogosphere and the huge positive reputation of Andi Satterlund and her fantastic patterns. Miette cardigan is free, so I thought it was the right move from boriiiiing scarves to -finally- a garment.

And BAM! Revelation! Knitting can be fun, guys! You have yarn, and needles, and you get to see the garment taking shape in your hands. Sewing is still number one creative outlet for me, but knitting has just become number two.

So this very imperfect and much loved Miette of mine. She comes from a 50% acrilic 50% wool blend, and unfortunately the biggest part of this yarn was poorly knitted and deconstructed by me, so used yarn that already peels when knitting it. Poor Miette.

Anyway, she has bigger problems, like the ridiculous button holes I made her: they are so uneven and poorly sewn into the stabilizing ribbon that it hurts my eyes. Or my many mistakes and in general poor master of basing knitting technique, which is by the way very visible even after blocking.

But, she has got all my love, and she will always be the first knitted garment I have ever made. This comes with the privilege of the best mother of pearls buttons I could find. Also, yes, the yarn is bad, but came with me all the way from Rome to Toulouse, and I am in many ways attached to it.

For the construction I seriously had no problems, thanks to mr. Youtube and its tutorials on every stitch I needed, and thanks to the patterns directions which are very cleverly written and easy to follow. I was amazed to see the lacework coming out of my hands, and then neckband, buttonholes, augmentations and reductions, circular needles, counting stitches and placing marks. I have learned all of that thanks to this pattern, and I truly don't care about the mistakes, I so love love love this cardigan.

The fitting is perfect, the shoulders look like designed on me, and even the waist fits correctly, or at least in a way I like. I was a bit worried about that, because of my waist measurement which is nothing alike the size of the pattern. I coped with that by means of an elastic bind-off, and blocking.

Of course there will be a next time, I am thinking cotton for example, for the summer nights in Toulouse. This first Miette was worn one day only, and then spring decided to rise the temperatures. So Miette is resting in the same drawer with my other cardigans and of course making them miserable because she is the only one hand-knitted and truly loved. She knows she is going to Scotland in a couple of weeks, when I'll go see my darling, I'm sure she might me handy there!

If my sewing plans go as I hope, I might need a red one in cotton, and probably a Myrna in green. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, and let's enjoy yet another useless picture of me being happy in my first cardigan.

Well, I hope your eyes will not hurt after such bad interpretation of Andi's clever pattern, and I hope to come back soon with a couple of other sewn projects I have in the blogging pipeline.

Ciao!