From disaster came.........

So I mentioned that I accidentally felted another cardigan. This one. I've blogged about this cardigan a couple of times, mainly about how long it took (moss stitch on a large cardigan eek!), about the bargain price of the wool, about the search for one last ball to finish it off, and about how wonderfully warm it was when wrapped around Heather and I when we were out and about. Well after all that I couldn't bear to see it all shrunk and stiff, yet neither could I just throw it away. And so yesterday it was transformed. I chopped and stitched. I crocheted. And I finally ended up with this:

What do you think?

I actually prefer it in it's new incarnation and have already had a request for something similar from a very particular and devoted to style, young person. I'm always pleased when I get a pleasant comment from those harshest of critics - young women! They all preferred it over the cardigan it used to be which they said looked as if it had been knitted for an old Granny. Mind you, if the cap fits.........!

Technical details:

7 balls of Paton's Shadow Tweed knitted up into a rather lovely moss stitch cardigan. Although I guess knitting it up into a couple of squares and a long thin rectangle would be far easier if you didn't want to wear the thing for a year first ;-)

Shrink all the knitting down on a very hot towel wash. This cardigan reduced down from around a size 14 to about an age 7-8 so very densely felted.

Scraps of Ikea fabric for the lining left over from making curtains for the caravan.

Bag handles free from one of my knitting mags at some point over the last few years.

Crochet flowers made up as I went along from scraps of Paton's fairytale color4me pure wool DK left over from a pumpkin hat. (I am rather liking the "make it up as you go" aspect of crochet, something that is much more difficult to do with knitting).

Running stitch stems for the flowers from scraps of green wool found in a bag of wool oddments at a car boot sale.

All in all a no-buy bag. Now to have a look at what else I can "accidentally" shrink in time for Christmas makes.

Happy crafting everyone.

-x-