It was an uphill struggle at times but I did it, and I'm very glad I did. I don't own any cardigans (despite having lots of jumpers) and so was itching for something I can snuggle up in and the slouchy, more relaxed look you gain with a cardie. Just around the time I was dreaming up cardie perfection, up popped Flcty on my instagram feed announcing she would publish a FREE oversized cardie pattern if there was enough interest. Thank you.
[NB: as of 2019 I became vegan and will no longer be buying wool.]
I have been slowly getting into knitting again over the past few months (a long hiatus after a rogue scarf I made when I was 10-ish) starting with scarves for myself, friends and family. But I was feeling quite insatiable in my craft appetite and jumped in at the deep end: knitting a jumper. I had got some way knitting myself a big jumper with chunky wool so had the confidence (or naivety?) to buy myself a load of wool to make this cardigan (7 x200g balls) which is no small amount of money. In the end I actually bought too much, I think I have about one ball and a half spare.
The pattern: Bonnie Cardigan by Flcty
The pattern is well written and easy to follow, much easier than the Rowan's pattern I am using for my jumper. I love the way the pattern is presented and the photos are really lovely. It would have been nice to make the two-tone version that flcty does, but the jumper I am currently making is stripey and so I had had enough of dealing with stripes.
I bought the yarn from Wool and the Gang who have such beautiful colours it is really hard to decide on just one. That's why I chose to do a stripey jumper so I could combine my favourite colours. But there was one more colour I fawned over and it didn't go with the other colours, so Bonnie presented me with the perfect opportunity to use it- Cinnamon Dust. Gorgeous name for a gorgeous warm, earthy, terracotta hue. I really enjoyed knitting with this wool, it's the chunkiest I've used but then I haven't knitted that much so I stay on the chunky side. Still, when I brought it along to a knitting group all the gals were shocked at how big it was.
Although WATG are not particularly transparent in their production process on their website, they do state that they 'believe.. [in] quality fashion produced in a sustainable way'. YES. But what I really want to know about is the welfare of the sheep and the people turning the wool into yarn. They don't offer any kind of answer to these questions online, all they say is:
Our materials are sourced with consideration so as to reduce impact on our environment. Here's some of the ways we do this... Wool (surprise!) is our favourite yarn. It's natural, renewable and biodegradable. We work with fashion factories to repurpose their fashion waste into new yarns to reduce landfill. We're always on the lookout for new innovative materials that help to reduce environmental impact.
Since publishing this blogpost WATG have got back to me.
They source their Crazy Sexy Wool, Sheepaca and Wooly Bully from Peru. At least they are not sourcing from the Australian wool trade. The animals are shorn, no museling- and the yarn tops are dyed using 'low impact dyes certified by both REACH and Oeko Tex.' They say the sheep are looked after on small family farms in the Andes. Read a little bit more about the story behind Crazy Sexy Wool here.
We believe it's our responsibility to work towards making the planet a better place and we're striving to work with a very clean supply chain. When we started our woolly adventure we went to Peru ourselves to meet with the suppliers and farms to ensure that the production met with our values, as these are central to Wool and The Gang.
We have alternative yarns that are really cool and are upcycled from the textile industry – they would normally end up in a landfill, however we recycle these materials to give them a second life. Our Jersey Be Good is a t-shirt yarn made from the offcuts of fabric rolls and our Mixtape yarn is regenerated from the scraps of jersey production, along with Billie Jean made from up-cycled denim, and produced by The New Denim Project (who are a really awesome company!).
We also have a yarn called Tina Tape, which is plant based AND vegan! Made from eucalyptus and dyed using low impact dyes, using renewable energy and is 100% biodegradable (so an all round winner!) —> https://www.woolandthegang.com/blog/2017/05/about-tina-tape-yarn.
They didn't talk about whether people who work for them are paid. It's positive that they are environmentally conscious too and are doing a lot to create yarn using recycled fibres and help tackle waste. You can see more about The New Denim Project on their instragram story. I'm sure WATG aren't perfect, but they are at the very least aware of animal welfare, humanitarian and environmental issues and at most actively doing something do combat parts of these huge issues in so far as their involvement. This is better than most companies.
The process
The two front pieces and the back piece knit up quickly with such chunky wool and I had no problems. I really like the way she talks you through doing the sleeves, it was easy to follow. The only hitch was the length of the sleeves, which didn't become apparent until after I had sewed my pieces together at the end, a little bit of a nasty shock. They looked about right before attaching them, because I didn't take into account the fact that the shoulder seam is very dropped. Therefore resulting in this:
I had a little bit of an omg-all-my-knitting-has-been-for-nothing-i've-made-a-huge-cardigan-that-will-swallow-me-hole-and-i'll-never-wear-it moment, probably because of just how long I had spent on it. Although it doesn't take long to knit the individual pieces in one go, I started to work full time and only did drips and drabs of it in the evening. After I calmed down, I realised of course that I could unpick the sleeves, unravel them, cast them off anew and attach them again. This was why I had so much wool leftover, as the sleeves got much wider near the top it meant there was about half a ball of wool coming off each. In the end I had tiny weeny sleeves left. Notice the difference-
The neck band was easy to figure out too, I didn't use markers to distribute the amount of stitches the pattern stipulated to pick up, I didn't bother even count my stitches. Looking at the neck edge, I just decided that picking up every other stitch would be sufficient and this would be much less time-consuming than marking it all.
Casting off was a bit of a learning curve. Having the neck edge on my circular needles meant it was quite bunched up, so the first time I did it I was tight with my stitches and it pulled the neck edge into this tiny shape, distorting the cardigan. I undid my cast off and tried it again 3 times, using a bigger 15mm needle (I had been using 10mm circulars) to make sure that I was looser whilst also making a conscious effort. But these cast offs were still pulling up at the neck line, particularly each edge.
I then realised that something called casting off in pattern existed... and this would mean I wouldn't have the obvious cast off edge contrasting against my ribbed neckband. Because I was ribbing in my cast off it also meant that the stitches were looser (I always find my ribbing is looser than my knitting). I probably could re-do my cast off again even, as it still pulls up at the edges, but I think it is meant to do this slightly anyway. I've just been pulling at it and trying to stretch it by hand so it falls down a bit more...
I think my cardigan turned out quite a bit bigger than the cardigan in the pattern photos, maybe I am a bit smaller and maybe I knitted a bit bigger. That's one thing I find really hard to grasp in knitting, the lack of control over the size of your garments- something that is much easier to control with sewing.
This cardigan did cost me a lot, but I really enjoyed the process and it was an interesting experience to see how you construct something knitted. WATG's wool is on the whole expensive, which hopefully reflects the fair wage they pay their workers and their care and investment in production. I will very happily pay more for yarn I know is doing the planet, people and animals more good than cheaper alternatives. Being 100% wool and very chunky it is very warm and cosy and I hope it will last me a lifetime, it will be well worth it. I still have my jumper to knit out of crazy sexy wool but then I think I'll give knitting a rest for a while. I love knitting and watching tv but it's blown a hole in my wallet so I need to reign it in.
Pattern: Bonnie Cardigan by flcty (free!)
Wool: Crazy Sexy Wool in Cinnamon Dust by Wool and the Gang.
Needles: 15mm straight needles, 10mm circular needs.