My newest design, The Reine Cardigan, was just released in Brooklyn Tweed’s third Wool People Collection! Yay!
The design has a classic silhouette and interesting details. I used Brooklyn Tweed’s Loft, which is a fingering weight yarn, at a larger gauge to make the cardigan light and airy – perfect for summer.
The design features a reversible cable edging, slanted patch pockets, and garter stitch details. The main part of the cardigan is knitted in one flat piece from the bottom up, then the sleeves are worked circularly from the top down. There is one seam that runs across the back of the shoulder which adds structure, preventing the shoulders from sagging. (more details & pictures here)
My goal with this design was to make a really wearable cardigan. The challenge is that wearable can often mean ordinary. I used special details like a reversible cable edging, slanted patch pockets, and garter stitch stripes to bring this design to the next level.
I originally submitted this design along, with a couple of others, when I was invited to contribute to Wool People Volume 2. Brooklyn Tweed decided to use my Arrowhead Mittens for that collection, but asked me to hold the other two designs to potentially use in their upcoming WP3. It’s hard to just sit on designs without commitment, but Reine was just so perfect for BT’s new Loft yarn, that I was happy to wait. I ended up developing the third design submission for an upcoming book. I’ll have more on that later!
It’s always hard putting my samples in the mail, but this one was particularly difficult to let go of. Reine is such a delightful thing to wear. It goes with almost everything and it’s sure to be in heavy wardrobe rotation, just as soon as I get my sample back. Here’s a cool picture from BT’s blog showing two ways to wear the cardigan (with positive or negative ease).
It was such an honor being asked to contribute a third time to BT’s Wool People collection. Of the three, this is definitely my favorite. I’d love to hear what you all think too, so please leave a comment below!