Back to basics

Recently I came upon a blog written by an American living and knitting in Bulgaria. In one of her posts Huelo said something that most of us, Bulgarians, know but we don’t really pay attention to it. She said that there is no such thing as a knitting community in Bulgaria as in the States. Here everybody has a grandma, mother, aunt or other close relative that knits. Also when Huelo knits outside nobody tells her “ah, you are so talented” but “my grandma used to knit” or “I used to knit when I had more free time.” It’s true by the way. I’ve experienced it too.

The good thing is that more and more young people go back to their roots so to speak. I dare to hope that knitting, sewing, and crafting will revive again. Nowadays it’s not fancy to “cannot”, it’s fancy to “can.” A few years back I didn’t know a person beside myself who’d sew or knit but now the situation has changed.

Something else has changed too. Recently, I knitted a cardigan from entirely natural and homemade yarn! If somebody has told me some years ago that I’d come to this point I’d laugh wholeheartedly. Why? Because for years I related the homemade yarn with the garments our mothers used to knit when we were kids. There was no big variety – and off white sweater and a wool leggings. I hated them form the bottom of my heart. Obviously things have changed – both the yarn and taste. Now it’s possible to dye the yarn the way you want it. Also, the homemade yarn has a lots of pros – it’s easy to knit and very warm. True wool. Also, when you know that the yarn comes from someone who has raise the sheep, cut the wool, washed it, carded it, and then spun the yarn. This is why I call it homemade – it’s entirely natural and ecofriendly. And no, this person was not me, I did the knitting part only.

Everything started last year when my mom came home with a kilo (two pounds) of the before said homemade yarn. She wanted to knit a dark blue cardigan for herself and dyed the yarn. Yeah, it turned blue but my favourite teal colour. Thus, I got the yarn. Around the same time I bought the Knit Scene magazine. Its cover was with a cardigan which would be the perfect choice for my yarn. Usually I don’t like to be follow the model to T but this was a different story.

A year has passed since then. Obviously it’s not the right time for it. However this September I dig out the yarn and the magazine and knitted the cardigan in one breath. Still, it’s not entirely ready because I have no suitable buttons for it but I can’t wait to share some pictures.

The pattern is from here  (http://www.interweavestore.com/knitscene-winter-2012-digital-edition). The cardigan is knitted top-down. Then the sleeves are set on additional needles to wait for the body to be finished first. However, I prefer to bind them off with a waste yarn in case not to have extra load form the needles. The interesting part of the cardigan is the yoke, which is knitted once the body is done. The sleeves are the last to come.

It’s a fitted cardigan. I made it a bit longer than the original.

Again, the blocking made all the difference.

Before blocking.

After blocking.

The entirely finished garment to come soon…