Hello, lovely knitters!
And happy new year to you and yours. Looking back over the blog archives of the past couple of months, my silences have been stretching quite long. I apologize for that; I’ll admit that I’ve been struggling to find my voice here, lately. It’s been too easy to avoid that struggle and throw myself into book writing and deadline knitting.
I’ll try not to let my silences become too long, in the future – whoever and wherever we are, our crafting and making are soothing activities, and the things we make brighten the world around us. And if I can contribute to world-brightening in any way, I want to do so.
In that vein, I’d like to share something lovely with you today, and that’s Solitude Wool’s Coopworth Sport. I first noticed the Solitude Wool booth at a Vogue Knitting Live marketplace – Gretchen and Sue are two shepherds from Virginia who saw a (much!) better use for some of the breed-specific fleeces that were being discarded by local farmers. They offer a variety of single-breed yarns, in a variety of beautiful hues, all carefully crafted into the perfect yarn for each breed.
When I got my excited little hands on their Coopworth sport, I was struck by its lightness and luminescence. It’s a lovely, bouncy wool, with a soft halo and snug little stitches. Knit up into large sections of fabric, it’s incredibly lofty. I couldn’t get an A-line cardigan out of my head – and today, I’d like to share Clearview with you:
Different designs come into being in different ways, but this one definitely started with the yarn. I knew an A-line cardigan was just the thing for this lighter-than-air material. I like the way a scoop neck pairs with 3/4 sleeves to visually balance out the wide bottom of an A-line cardigan, and thought top-only buttons would be a nice detail.
That settled the basic shape – which meant I needed to decide on a stitch pattern.
I was ready to knit something less plain than Stockinette, but didn’t want the garment to be too fussy – it was important to me to let the yarn shine. A simple Windowpane texture turned out to be just the thing – it almost looked too subtle in my swatch, but once it covered all of the fabric, I loved the effect.
And now, I have a warm, snuggly bit of lightness to brighten gray studio days.
I hope you love this design as much as I do, and that it brightens your gray days too. Click here to make your own, and thanks so much for reading.
Happy knitting to you!
Amy Herzog Designs