Bolero cardigan from failed and felted sweater!

I had started to knit myself a short-sleeved mohair sweater a few days ago. I wanted it to knit up fast on chunky needles - I'm a bit of an 'instant gratification' knitter. The only mohair yarn I could get hold of locally was a very fine yarn. So I decided to knit it along with another yarn - the only matching yarn I had in my stash was a 100% acrylic yarn in DK, but it looked good together and started off well. Anyway, long story short - once I had finished the front and back, it didn't look so good. Ok, it looked pretty rubbish. What to do??....

I have never felted anything. Actually I have, but not on purpose. I have never felted anything with the sole purpose of refashioning it. Now I realise that the yarn really should be a high wool content or it won't felt. But I figured that since my mohair yarn was intertwined with the acrylic it would be worth a shot. So into the washing machine it went this afternoon... And I was pretty happy with the result. OK, it wasn't as good as if the whole thing was wool, or if I had been knitting on a smaller needle, but all things considered, I was pretty happy. As it had been knitted loose on large needles, it was now a kind of lacy (hole-y) effect fabric! Now what to make of it?

The pieces were fairly small, so I decided on a bolero cardigan for Daisy. Using one of her existing cardigans, I traced a template onto paper, adding a seam allowance. I cut a piece for the back and two pieces for the front.

Template for back of cardi and one side of the front (just reverse it
 to get a piece for the other side. I didn't make seperate sleeves, just
extended a short sleeve from the body)

I then cut out the pieces from my knitted fabric, and using my sewing maching and a zig zag stitch, attached the front pieces to the back, along the shoulder seams and side seams. It then looked like this picture below.

Because the fabric wasn't fully felted, because of the acrylic yarn, I was going to have to do something to secure the edges or it would end up fraying. The back and neck were ok, as I used the sides of the fabric for that, but the front edges and sleeves needed finishing.) I started to do a tight blanket stitch around the edge, but the fabric was too loose for that. I then toyed with the idea of stitching a ribbon edge along the front, but it was too fiddly. So I simply decided to do an overcast stitch around the edge, using my sewing machine (not a serged edge, as I don't have a serger. Maybe one day.). This turned out better than I hoped as it made the fabric 'ruffle'.

Overedge stich on the front of the cardi

It doesn't look so good in the photo, but it real life, it does look fairly good. If I do say so myself. It also looks very pretty on, but as I'm doing this long after the kids are in bed you'll have to trust me on that one.

I'm back...

I've not blogged for ages, but not because I've not been doing and making things (not sure that that is correct English, but never mind!). I've been knitting a plenty! As it is rather cold and snowy, it is definitely the season for warm knits. Here are some of the things I've made in the last little while - more information is on my Knitting page.

Baby Cardigan

Cosy Hat!

Chunky Sweater

I've discovered Ravelry - a great knit and crochet website. Most knitters will already know of it, but if you haven't heard of it, get yourself on there! It's a fantastic source of patterns and help!