Posted in The Sewing Room

I love to knit - it's a real wintery thing to do on the long, cold evenings while I sit in my chair by the fire.

This post is primarily for Heather and  Vickie and for my sister Penny, who doesn't have a blog yet.

Penny and her husband Nick sent Meredith a beautiful dress from Canada last Christmas and it is perfect for dressing up occasions like church or parties. It is sleeveless though, so it was perfect for summer, but not perfect for winter wear, so I decided to hunt out a little cardigan that I could knit her so she could continue wearing it through our winter. I found this pattern:

It is from the Australian knitting books by Patons and this is the Zhivago for kids book. They have a website here.

The dress is mostly white with red and green flowers scattered over it and a red sash to tie in the back. Red and white are the dominant colours in the dress, so I found a lovely deep red 8 ply New Zealand Merino wool with a little bit of silk in it to knit this cardigan in. Meredith likes the big ribbon in the picture  the best. Somehow this picture makes the wool look more pink than red - it is really a very deep blood red wool.

I am such a slow knitter though, I hope it will be finished this winter, and before she wears the dress out! Heather was telling me how her sister knits from top to bottom so there are virtually no seams to sew up at the end. This would be a dream - I hate sewing my knitting up at the end, but I don't think I have enough brains to figure out how to do it.

The only thing with this pattern is the intricate knitted lace edging - I had this on another cardigan I once did for Meredith and it is a nightmare to knit - but it looks so pretty I couldn't resist doing it again, even though I know I'm going to regret it! I just have one sleeve to finish and then start on the lace and I'm all done - apart from the sewing up of course!