I am a beginner in knitting. Although I tried to knit my first stitches sometime in my childhood, it wasn’t until the spring of 2020 that I gained a passion for knitting. Despite all limitations and restrictions at that time of the COVID-19 pandemic, my mental health allowed me to complete my second practical knitted garment. It´s a red cardigan, which I have knitted following instructions of the designer Sarah Hatton by the Rowan creative collective.
It was in 2021, after I moved from Carinthia to the capital city of Vienna my knitting journey
continued. During the summer of 2021 I was living in Bratislava temporarily (around 70 kilometers
from Vienna). At that time, I was working in the Slovak capital on the finalisation of the furnishing
of two apartments. The photo below shows a shot from one of these apartments.
Photo 1.: Interior of the apartment before the finalisation of the open kitchen-living room
But for this moment let´s go back to knitting. I have used a red wool yarn for the body of the
cardigan and a wool yarn in fuchsia for the edges of sleeves and the collar. This colour combination
was somehow created by chance. I bought my first skein of the fuchsia wool from an online shop
to see its real colour. Since the skein wasn´t actually red as I’d believed from the picture but
fuchsia, I didn’t order more. This was the choice I made while I was still living in Carinthia.
Later, I fell in love with another shade of red wool in one shop in Bratislava. I came back with a haul
after my visit: one skein of wool yarn, one pair of 8mm needles and a knitting magazine for
inspiration (in Italian). At that time I still believed that 8mm needles would be the most suitable
for the thickness of the yarn. That’s what the manufacturer says on the skein.
Photo 2., 3., 4.:
However, it turned out that if as a beginner I want to be able to knit a sweater in my size by
following the instructions of the pattern in English (and avoiding the recalculation of the stitches to
a size that isn´t in the instructions), it´s necessary to knit with thicker needles. So, I tried it with
10mm needles. In the end, I decided on 12mm needles for a reason that the red yarn is thinner
than the yarn used in the original pattern.
In the picture below we can see the thinner red yarn and the thicker one in fuchsia.
In the picture on the left, there is the smaller sample of the same yarn knitted with 8mm needles
and the bigger one with 12mm needles.
Photo 5., 6.:
Last but not least I wanted to knit the cardigan a bit bigger than my actual size. So, I knitted the XL
as the largest size given in the pattern, while my clothing size is medium. The knitting of this
pattern went smoothly, so that the individual parts of the cardigan were coming out of my needles
quite optimistically. This was also thanks to the fact that, especially at the starting point, I was able
to consult Paulina directly in her wool shop. Videos on YouTube also helped me: I used them to
master the sewing of the individual parts of the cardigan.
Photo 7., 8.:
Before finalizing the collar, I wanted to check my knitting was going ok, but the shop was closed on
the day of my visit to Bratislava. And so, as a passionate beginner and thanks to my impatience, I
didn’t have the choice but to unravel the mystery of this part of the instruction in English by
myself.
Photo 9. Detail of the instruction in English
Photo 10., 11., 12.:
I was happy that I finally got the collar done. Little did I know that I had another challenge ahead:
sewing the decorative buttons (not easy, but happily found that right colour in Vienna) evenly and
especially the inner press studs. I couldn’t help but think of my beloved grandmother Paula, who
sewed those buttons and fastenings onto her self-made clothes (in addition to her full-time job at
the antiquarian bookshop in Bratislava) in the evenings and on weekends. When she sewed
something nice for me, it was an opportunity to learn about sewing from her.
Photo 13.: My grandmother Paula (a mother who after two years overcome tuberculosis with strength and resilience, when my mother was just four years old)
Photo 14., 15., 16.:
The photo of the finished model was taken in Vienna near the Paulinenwarte, (Pauline´s Tower),
which was inaugurated in 1888 (its architect and builder was Anton Krones). Since 1909 it has been
named after Pauline von Metternich (1836-1921), who supported its construction financially along
with the planting in the Türkenschanz park inspired by the English park style.
I used 12 skeins of red and 100g of fuchsia to knit this cardigan in size XL (in fact it corresponds
approximately to my usual size M), so 700g of wool yarn in total. Compared to the consumption
estimated in the instruction it represents a material saving of almost 15%. Overall, it’s lighter and
somehow fluffier, but still warm enough to wear as a final layer in the spring or autumn season.
Lucia Haquel
Photos: © lucia haquel
P.S.: The very first hand-knitted garment was a pure linen summer top, that I knitted according to a
model by designer Marie Wallin.
Photo 17., 18.:
