Ta-dah! Is it obvious that I’m mighty pleased with myself? My head is so swelled that it wouldn’t fit in the photos!
Finished the ruffled bed jacket from Knitting Lingerie Style, with my modification of a different ruffle pattern (didn’t care for McGowan-Michael’s version), namely “Fern Lace” from 365 Knitting Stitches A Year, a worth-its-weight-in-yarn little pattern bible. Here’s a detail of the pattern from the sleeve ruffle:
Chose it as much for its tendency to create a lovely rippled edge as for the pattern itself, which decreased nicely on the final repeat so I could stitch it neatly to the cardigan body.
Loved the basic cardigan pattern idea; so feminine, such a lovely fit, and doesn’t it go perfectly over this dress? I never know where inspiration will strike; I’d held onto the Manos del Uruguay yarn for a couple of years, loving that palest shell pink color but not finding quite the right pattern to make best use of it.
Once I found that dress, the proverbial lightbulb went on. I could see it in my mind’s eye, a soft, delicately ruffled jacket to wear over the dress on our cool summer evenings. Then I got my copy of Knitting Lingerie Style, saw the bed jacket pattern, and everything clicked.
If I were to make the cardigan again, I’d do perhaps three additional repeats of the Fern Lace pattern, and stitch the ruffle onto the cardigan body so that the extra fullness settled at the center of the back, to give the overall fit a little more swing and a little less cling. And of course, the crowning glory is this gorgeous carved shell button from my collection of vintage buttons:
Comments welcome