This cropped cardi, knit in Phildar’s luscious soie, is like a candy pink bonbon. I enjoyed knitting with the luscious silk much as I enjoy eating the decadent chocolates of Rechiutti. In fact, this cropped carigan, Jen, reminds me of the rose caramel I inhaled at Rechiutti chocolates the other day. Yum! Another delightful pattern by Kim Hargreaves. My only concern about the cardigan is that it was meant to be knitted in bamboo soft, which grows quite a bit after washing. However, the Phildar soie swatch that I knitted grew even more, so I thought it was a good choice to substitute for the bamboo. Mindful of the growing, I knitted this cardigan in a size small. But even after washing all of my pieces, the cardigan has stayed size small! Even with the horizontal bust darts that I added , there is a hint of gapping in the buttons at the bust, which I will fix with a well-placed snap.
Perhaps after another washing and some more wearing, it will stretch out. There’s nothing worse than a flapping, loose cardigan, so I’d rather it be more fitted than not enough. I have to say, that with every project, my admiration of Kim Hargreaves grows. I can finish a sweater of hers twice as fast as most others, because the pattern instructions are so well written that it is sure to work out without all the time consuming fidding that drives me crazy and makes me want to tear my hair out. Speaking of which, I started Audrey in Unst last week, and as lovely as the pattern is, I’m having some issues with the fit at the hips that are driving me batty.
Audrey in Unst by Gudrun Johnson
After knitting up 7 inches, I realized it was turning out into not the cropped cardigan the pattern claimed to be, but a full-length sweater, and the lower a sweater sits on my hips, the wider it needs to be, opening up a host of calculations with stitch gage. This entire problem is my fault, as my row gage is off, so I'm ending up with 7.5 inches from hips to waist instead of 4.5, as the pattern demands. Now that I've realized that I'm the source of the error, I'm going to shorten my cardigan, and my guess is that most of the fit problems will disappear. Wish me luck! In the meantime, to console myself for my strugglees with Audrey, I cast on another pattern by Kim Hargreaves yesterday, Alexi.
Picking up a new pattern by a tried and true designer is an indulgent, giddy feeling, like picking up a good book by an author you know you will enjoy! Speaking of authors….drumroll, my short story has arrived!
The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance is now for sale in bookstores around the country, including Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. My story, “The Panchamaabhuta” is a fun, suspenseful romantic tale about a dashing widow who becomes entangled with an exotic jewel thief. Be prepared for some spicy writing, as those were the terms of my engagement to write for this anthology. I really enjoyed working with the editor, Trisha Telep, who was delightful, and I was happy with her praise of my story, as I was a bit nervous about straying from novel-length to a 20-50 page novella. I hope my readers will enjoy the results! I have to admit to thoroughly having fun writing this story, in particular the suspenseful plot. I think when you write, you have to create what you like to read, and a love story where the happy ending is intimated in the very first page, to me falls rather flat. I want to be kept guessing and I want to see some kind of transformation in at least one of the characters before the end. Especially if there is an intimate moment between the hero and heroine, I want to read about a moment of self-discovery, about an exchange of selves that sparks some kind of deep change, as opposed to a passing moment of "hotness", which seems to be everywhere celebrated in the media these days. I guess that is why romance is still a genre that champions women's values, of connection, and self-knowledge, even if it is delivered in the guise of an adventure with some spice and mystery thrown in.
I think I will wrap myself up in my bonbon of a cardigan now and sample another fun tale of love and adventure from the Mammoth anothology. Much like my candy pink cardi, Jen, the tales in this book are delightful moments to be savored much like a French chocolate with a hint of bergamot, lemon verbena, or cinnamon....