Paper Tiger

Happy new year!

I started a new (temporary) job at the beginning of September, so things have been pretty full-on for the past couple of months. But I’ve been trying to enjoy the changing seasons, first autumn and now winter, and I’ve been getting some knitting done now and then. I thought I’d catch you up on a few of the things I’ve made since I last posted.

Today I have one relatively recent finished object to show you, along with an older one I don’t think I ever shared on the blog, but as they’re two versions of the same pattern it felt like a chance to share the older one too!

In November I finished my second Helix cardigan (Ravelry link), a pattern by MarGueNée Designs originally released in conjunction with La Bien Aimée’s Felix yarn base. I knit my first Helix back in 2021/2022, and it became one of the knits I reached for the most once I finished it (I was pregnant at the time, so it was one of the few garment knits I could keep wearing into my third trimester). I’ve long wanted to make one in a different color, and finally got around to it!

One of the things I like about this pattern is that it’s a basic with fun details and it’s also very adaptable. It’s a top down raglan, but the increases are worked in a way that leaves decorative holes along the raglan lines, and the pattern is written with options for cropped or full length body, 3/4 or full length sleeves, and crew neck or V-neck. Both of my versions are cropped in the body with the V-neck and long sleeves, although there are a few small differences beyond that.

Version number two is in this delightful warm yellowy brown shade that I find hard to describe. Back during COVID lockdown I bought two skeins of Wanderlust 4ply (a British BFL/nylon base) from Phileas Yarns, my friend Sylvie’s line of hand-dyed yarns (she’s sadly no longer dyeing). The colorway is called cabane à sucre, the French name for a sugar shack where maple syrup is made. And the name is on point; the color is absolutely tire d’érable, the maple taffy made by slinging fresh maple syrup over troughs of snow (you can see my post about visiting a cabane à sucre when I lived in Montréal here). When I decided I wanted to make a Helix with this yarn, I picked up two skeins of Fabel Knitwear’s Mohair Silk in the Goldthorn colorway, which was an incredibly close match.

The color is also notably similar to the yarn I used for my Piece of Silver sweater last year, which is Fabel Knitwear’s Gløgg colorway – that one’s slightly orangier, but I realized after I made sweater that how much I actually love wearing that color. So a Helix in a similar shade felt like a recipe for a new wardrobe staple.

One of the best things about making your own cardigans is choosing buttons you’d never find on ready-to-wear garments, and for this one I went with ceramic buttons featuring Morris & Co. patterns. The blue shades do the pleasing complementary colors thing with the cardigan itself, and I also wear a lot of blue, so it works really well. This version’s been getting a lot of wear since I finished it.

This more recent version of Helix features standard tapered sleeves, as written for the long sleeve option in the pattern. My first Helix, however, I chose to knit the sleeves straight down to the cuff with no decreases, then rapidly decrease before the cuff to create a little bit of a bishop sleeve.

I picked up the yarn for my first version when we were living in Montréal and I was working at Espace Tricot. I used The Fibre Co. Meadow in the Pennyroyal colorway with Rowan Kidsilk Haze in the Alhambra colorway. Meadow is a light fingering/heavy lace in a dreamy blend of merino, baby llama, silk, and linen, which means this cardigan is a little bit lighter and airier overall than my second version. As a sidenote: I was sad to read last week that The Fibre Co. is winding down to cease selling yarn later this year, as their yarns have always felt really special. The shifting landscape of the yarn and fiber community has been tough in the past couple of years, watching beloved brands closing up shop. It’s all the more reason to support the companies and makers you want to make sure stick around.

Coming back to the cardigan: the minty shades of Meadow and Kidsilk Haze are just different enough to give this cardigan a pleasingly marled effect, with the Kidsilk Haze being a darker shade than the thicker Meadow. I went for small buttons with some bling for this one, which I picked up from my beloved local passementerie M. Sommer (I believe it was these, though I’m not sure if I got the 9 mm or the 11 mm version). I love these buttons because while it’s very easy to wear this cardigan with a casual outfit, it works with slightly dressier outfits too.

I feel like I’ve been talking for years about how my wardrobe needs more cardigans rather than more pullovers, so it’s good to be finally chipping away at that goal (even if I’m still knitting more pullovers than cardigans).

My temporary job is sadly ending after February, and I’m not sure yet what else is on the horizon professionally this year. I do, however, have some pattern work lined up(!!). So at the very least, I should have some new work to share, and I hope to keep sharing personal projects and musings as well. I hope you all are staying as well as you can in the midst of… well, all of it. You know.