Pam Alison Knits

All the effort on my lace cardigan project paid off and I was, indeed, able to wear the new garment on my final day at work.

Whilst I’m very pleased with the outcome, making this has sated the decades-long yearning I had to knit this design. I prefer the lace cardigans I have made in the past from a single strand of 4-ply wool and would revert to that in the future. After its bath, this fabric is a little thicker than I’d have chosen, though I do have some thoughts about that which I’m going to explore next time I wash the cardi.

The lace pattern itself is very pleasing, geometric as opposed to organic, with a structural integrity which the wool yarn helps. This isn’t by any means a floaty lace garment, and I appreciate that. I’m also very taken with the longer ribs at the waist and the cuffs.

On the deficit side of the ledger, I hated making the button bands and collar and I’m just slightly dissatisfied with them. The top button is a little too high for my taste. Now, that is dictated by the whole design of the garment and once the fronts were knitted there was nothing to be done about it. I only realised when the whole project was complete and I’m left thinking to myself that in an ideal world I’d have done it differently.

The written pattern has you make the button band and half the shawl collar as one piece, then make the buttonhole band and other half of the shawl collar as a second piece. When you sew them in place, you seam the two halves of the collar together at the back of the neck. I’ve done that before. I hate it. This time, I knit the whole thing in one piece then sewed it in place so there is no seam at the back of the neck. Much better.

I was counting every row and yet I managed to make the buttonhole side at least four inches too long. It was simple enough to unpick the extra rows, but it’s still a little bit wavy where it’s not the ideal fit for the front panel. Good enough is done, and I have few regrets, just a niggling thought that I could have done a bit better. One very strange thing was that I couldn’t for the life of me work out how to make the buttonholes and I’ve knitted tons of things with buttonholes before now. Perhaps I was thrown by this being a separate piece. More usually I would be picking up stitches around the cardigan opening and knitting out from that. Whatever, I spent a couple of evenings being baffled and I definitely didn’t like this particular part of the construction at all.

One thing the shawl collar does, together with the thick wool, is make this a very warm cardigan. It’s going to be splendid in the autumn and winter and, when it’s fine enough to cast off our coats, to replace a jacket on spring days.

It’s another versatile and wearable addition to my “core” wardrobe and I have no doubt it will see plenty of wear.

Just now, though, I wonder if I’m ready to move away from the strictly blue diet I’ve existed on recently.

The technical stuff
Pattern – Sirdar 5952
Designed for – Sirdar Country Style DK or similar (suggested) | JC Rennie Supersoft Lambswool 2/11.3Nm greasy coned yarn held double (used)
Yarn requirement – 400g (suggested) | 850g available on cone | 342g remaining after project (362g minus estimated 20g for plastic inner tube). Estimated yarn used is 508g
Needles – 3.25mm & 4mm (suggested) | 3.25mm & 4mm (used)
Design decade – 1970s/1980s
Description – Lace cardigan with drop shoulders, wide sleeves and shawl collar
Construction method – Knit bottom-up in 5 pieces and seamed together before adding the button bands and shawl collar