Back to the Fifties

I love knitting, yes I do, love it to bits, can't stop knitting.  But I've realised I also love frogging!  This seems a bit of a contradiction.  Knitting is creating a fabric from a length of yarn.  Frogging is, well, the exact opposite. Frogging is destructive rather than creative - or is it?

I love frogging not for the sake of it but because it gives you a chance to create something new from something old and no longer loved.  Some sweaters and cardigans are worn and loved so much that the yarn could never be recycled but others, you knit them, wear them a bit, then think nah!

This was the fate of this rather lovely lacy sweater.

Knitted in 2007 from a Rowan pattern called Ophelia by Sarah Hatton. It's sat at the back of the wardrobe for many years now.

Looking at the pattern again I still love it but it just wasn't me - I don't think I'm a long-line sweater person.  Maybe if I knitted a cropped version - a possibility for another time.

Anyway - it's been frogged

and the yarn reknitted as this.

I've called this design Barbara.  It's based on a pattern from the October 1950 edition of Needlewoman and Needlecraft.

It has a cabled peplum and elbow length sleeves.

I've lowered the neckline from the original - I don't like high necks.

I've also skipped the coloured design - too fiddly.

Anyway - I'm so pleased with the end result.  It's a great fit, the styling has turned out just as I planned and the frogged sweater has become something very wearable again.  What's not to love?

I'll finish typing up the pattern and post it shortly.  Now I've spotted another cardi at the back of the wardrobe that needs to be lovingly frogged!