I’m sure many — if not all — fibre enthusiasts relate when I say I have entirely too much fingering-weight yarn.
Whether it’s leftovers from a project, bought with the intention of becoming my next project, or because indie dyers make it so darn pretty, fingering-weight yarn is easy to accumulate. With a drawer fit to burst, I wanted to find a way to use up as much as I could in as few projects as possible. I wasn’t about to knit 47 pairs of socks.
Enter the one and only Stephen West, whose design aesthetic is oft described as “colourful,” “loud,” and “eccentric,” and I love it. When he launched the Garter Marler Cardigan pattern earlier this year, I saw the solution to my stash-busting woes.
The Garter Marler Cardigan, as the name suggests, uses a colourwork technique called marling — where you knit with two different colours of yarn held together as one to create a sort of mottled effect, swapping out one strand at a time between stripes to fade the colours together.
Colour theory is one of the main challenges presented by projects using yarn scraps. If you don’t plan accordingly, you are left with something messy and haphazard. I had to restart my cardigan early on because my initial colours were looking so garish together. My method after starting over was to, as much as possible, follow the order of the rainbow spectrum. When I started running low on my own scraps, I purchased some mini skein sets from Rose Hill Yarns and Sassy Strings to supplement my sweater. At least that way, I knew going in that the colours paired well.
With the cardigan being knit flat and in garter stitch (the same knit stitch on every row), it was an extremely meditative project. I even used some buttons from my collection, alternating sizes of salvaged wood buttons from Stash Lounge put the finishing touches on my cozy creation.
I’ve been saying this more and more often, but my Garter Marler Cardigan is among my best works and favourite garments yet. I’m so proud of how my knitting continues to improve with each passing project.
Although I still need to weave in some of those ends.
Think I saw a piece that needed to be fit back in – not my imagination. My comments are on the face book place. Always look forward to seeing your latest project. Love you too.
Love your writing, Centaine, and the sweater is very fun and unique! Well done you! Love you, xo
Thanks for sharing. I love the sweater. I have a BUNCH of minis from advent calendars so I’m looking for “scrappy” sweaters. Yours turned out great.
Doooo iiiiit!! It’s perfect for minis! And thank you so much 🙂