I’ve ripped back an old cardigan to knit this and the Pickles Alpaca plus 2 strands of Merino Tweed work perfectly to get the correct gauge.

11.4: I am so totally chuffed that I’ve got this knitted up in 4 days! This is due to:

1: it’s really quite an addictive pattern, esp if you factor in the chunky-weight/big needles = super-fast knit aspect.

2: the weather has been utterly dire here in the east of England: all types of rain, from heavy to mizzle, plus general mist, plus cold east wind = lack of willingness to venture outside (though I have been taking my usual round the village walks in spite of the rain).

3: I have extra ‘awake time’ right now as I have raging insomnia, likely brought about by my ongoing dodgy thyroid problem (I’m hyper at the moment, although I should be hypo, having had radioactive treatment in January, designed to knock my thyroid out duh). Fresh air walks haven’t helped, in fact everything on the planet including breathing exercises, soothing drinks, soothing sounds, blahblahblah… in fact, actually including max strength sleeping pills which I have kind of got hold of illicitly (as the medics think it’s not a ‘good idea’, even though insomnia is a major, known symptom of hyperthyroidism). Do I sound totally nuts??? well, even I agree that I do. I’m not after sympathy, it’s just how it is, things will get better…

What this all means phew is that I’ve been working non-stop on my Carbeth cardigan (OK, with a bit of enforced cooking, cleaning and washing).

Pattern: really very simple, with the addition of some very ingenious yoke shaping. It’s a knit that’s very much about the finishing. I have made a few mods: firstly, the length of the body… 8” for my size?! I imagine that Kate D must be tiny! I wanted the length to be quite cropped, really as it looks on Kate - just reaching the waistband. So I ended up knitting to about 13”; sleeves to about 19”. I’ve knitted the collar to 20 repeats (rather than 30). As a consequence of these things, I’ve had to pick up more sts for the front bands (about 75 each side - a multiple of 4, plus 3), at a ratio of about 3 sts for every 4 rows (thank you, fellow knitter on the Kate Davies forum). For the collar, I’ve picked up 6 sts each side, rather than 8 (as it wasn’t as long). For the buttonholes, I’ve knitted 1 straight I-cord knit row (rather than 3), and cast off 1 corresponding st (rather than 2): this is because I wanted the buttonholes to be smaller to accommodate my Textile Garden toggles! And I’ve knitted the I-cord cast off quite firmly for a neater finish. NB: getting the I-cords/buttonholes to my finicky liking took about 3 attempts… but I had time!!!

Also: I used the Kathy Lyons’ SSK method - someone mentioned it in their Carbeth notes. I hadn’t come across this before, but I think it looks slightly different/better? than my usual method.

Yardage: absolutely no idea!

FO 13.4: really like this, slightly tweedy and jackety, def wearable over a dress in the summer… rifles through summer clothes in wistful anticipation