A Commission of sorts.....

Months ago, DD2 asked me to make her a cardigan.  Well, I was happy to go along with this and the next time we went to Colchester, I took her into Franklins (the haberdashery/fabric/yarn shop) and went upstairs with her to the yarn department.  I'd already decided that I'd use Stylecraft Special DK, simply because I knew that, the cardigan being for DD2, it would get put through the washing machine on a regular basis.

So.... we stood in front of the display of Stylecraft (according to the Wool Warehouse website, there are 82 colours in the range including the tweedy/mottled shades) and I waited for her to choose the colour she wanted, expecting on the pink or purple shades to be chosen.

Boy was I wrong!

She went for Mocha, which - as the name suggests - is a coffee colour.

I double checked that was the colour she wanted.  It was.  I triple checked because, well, it's DD2.  Yes, she definitely wanted "dark beige".

Four 100g balls were duly bought and brought home, plus some beige buttons.

Next came the task of choosing a pattern.  Again, she knew what she wanted.  V-neck.  Long sleeves.  Plain; no pattern, just stocking stitch.  Then she threw in the mix that she wanted a ruffle at the bottom (her navy blue school cardigans have a slight ruffle on the bottom).  Hmmmm.  I looked on Ravelry and found the Striped (Or Not) cardigan by Amy Herzog, which was a Rowan knitalong.  I then turned my thoughts to a ruffle and then remembered the Simple City Shawlette by Mimi Codd that I'd made a few years ago.  That has a foxglove-type ruffle edging.  Hurrah!

I read the pattern notes and watched the first video that Amy Herzog made to accompany the knitalong and got some tips on choosing which size to knit (I'd recommend that video as it was very useful), then I cast on.  I did change the pattern a bit, knitting the back and fronts in one piece up to the armholes.  I also knit the sleeves in the round up to the armholes as well.

I knitted and knitted and knitted, putting it down for a few days at a time before deciding that I really did need to just get on and get it done.  This was made much easier by DD2 handing me my knitting almost every time I sat down and telling me to "knit dark beige cardigan"!!!

Last week, it was finished.  The ruffle was a bit of a slog as I ended up with approx 580 stitches on my needles for the last couple of rows and then, of course, had to cast them all off.

A few days before I started the ruffle, DD2 then announced she didn't want beige buttons on it any more - she wanted red, so I nipped into Dunelm last Monday and was able to get some the right size.

Here it is:

The V-neck:

The ruffle and one of the red buttons:

What's especially nice is that she's actually worn it.  Twice!

I've got some other things on the go (of course!), plus another FO, which I'll show you tomorrow.