The first actual item of clothing I knitted was of mixed success so it’s taken me a while to try again. This time I went for a cardigan, as I’m a big cardigan wearer, using this free pattern. There are SO many cardigan patterns out there but I started with this one because it said all the good key words ’easy’, ‘beginner’, ’everyday’.

It’s actually come out really well! Knitting up the various sections was pretty simple (although I did mess up a significant bit during one front panel decrease and used the amazing third method of unravelling mentioned here).

I’m getting better at sewing all the pieces together and had the bare bones of the cardigan in place - hooray. Then the pattern called for the button band… knitting a narrow piece all the way up one side, round the back of the neck and back down - but having to know where your buttons are going to be so you can put the buttonholes in the right place. This absolutely boggled my mind as I was doing it but actually, it’s not turned out too badly.

The buttons are not where I initially put their markers but they aren’t too badly positioned. And the gapping isn’t too bad as long as you don’t look too closely at the larger gap between buttons two and three.

I am, broadly speaking, really happy with this! It’s come out too big so I might try it again and choose a smaller knitting size. And I have to admit to falling out of love with the yarn during the process. It’s kind of a pale pink tweed with orange and green bits in which seemed like a good idea at the start but maybe not so much now. Never mind though, I’m calling this a success!