knitted: yellow agatha cardigan

I still can't believe I actually knitted this. Screw my school exam results, gaining my degree or passing my driving test, THIS is my proudest achievement in life to date.

(It was only after I had taken the photos that I noticed there were sunspots and rays in most of them, grrrr!)

When I unexpectedly started knitting at the beginning of the year I had a feeling I'd actually stick with it this time (after several half arsed attempts over the years) so I joined Ravelry. The first thing I bookmarked was Andi Satterlund's Agatha cardigan as I had been swooning over so many versions over the last couple of years. I wrote the following caption underneath the image: "I *will* learn to make this."

Surprisingly, I actually did.

I have learnt soooo much from knitting this: top down construction, knitting in the round, knitting with double pointed needles, lace work, how to undo mistakes (I made quite a few!) and working short rows. I have genuinely surprised myself.

Top down construction was a real eye opener. My Mum still maintains it's the most complicated written pattern she's encountered in her life, and yes it is confusing to the uninitiated, but I can see why Andi has done it this way. It's very clever the way it completely avoids any kind of seams. It just means that easily confused people like myself need to fully write out every row by hand to prevent getting lost with the lace panels.

The first 8 rows of the pattern were brain-meltingly difficult for me as I was learning all the different stitches and how to read/decipher the instructions, but things eventually started to make sense once I saw the lacework develop and became more comfortable with the stitches. It's all completely doable, even for a relative beginner, but you need to be switched on, preferrably with YouTube knitting tutorials on standby.

Even knitting with double pointed needles for the sleeves wasn't as complicated or traumatic as I had first thought. The biggest difficulty was knowing how to wield all the needles. It initially felt like I was grappling with a pointy legged octopus but it did get easier with practise. Now I know it's not something to be afraid of.

As mentioned a couple of months ago when I started the project I fell slap bang between two sizes so I took an educated guess after swatching and knit the larger size (size M) with double knit wool instead of aran on smaller needles to create an inbetween size. Thankfully my gamble worked out pretty well, although I did have to make changes to the length and buttonbands. My top two buttons ended up closer to each other, but I'm willing to live with it. On the whole the cardigan is a little bit on the big side for me, but pretty good considering I'm a beginner who deviated from the pattern recommendations.


The recommended wool for the project is Cascade, a peruvian wool, but I didn't want to order wool online without having seen or felt it, so I went with Jamiesons of Shetland as I had their shade card swatches (my Mum orders from them regulary.) I know and love their quality and range of colours and they're also relatively local so it was great to know exactly what I was ordering. The shade I went for is called Scotch Broom - an ochrey yellow with little flecks in it, so not entirely matte. I absolutely love it and know this cardigan will get loads of wear as it matches a lot of my dresses and high waisted skirts.

My buttons came from a charity shop. Contrary to what my photograph suggest they're yellow and match my cardigan perfectly.

Buttoning up regular length cardigans over dresses tend me make me feel a bit frumpy-bag-lady because they fall at the hip level/fullest part of my skirt so it's lovely to have a cardigan designed specifically for high waisted styles. Cropped body, fully long sleeved cardigans are so difficult to come across in shops (why are they all 3/4 length sleeved?!) so YAY I CAN MAKE MY OWN. Over 3 months, but still. Handmade cardigans! Living the dream.


Apologies for such a long post. I guess I had a lot to say about my new favourite cardigan. If you can't get enough of my knitting rambles or want to know more about this project's process then feel free to check out my notes on my Ravelry page.

Anyone else knitting at the moment? Mum and I have been knitting little Christmas decorations over the past week which has been great fun!