Henrietta Maria Cardigan

It really started with the stitch pattern, King Charles Brocade.  It's named after King Charles I of England who lost his head and, gruesomely enough,  the knitted waistcoat he was wearing at the time was saved. and it had a diamond brocade pattern that now carries his name.

It is a very fine and elegant pattern and I had been wanting to use it on something for a while. Having come across a photo of some 1940's cocktail sweaters with diamond patterns with embellishments inside the diamonds I had an aha! moment and produced this sketch.

 

 Having bought a skein of Weaver's Loft Gaia Worsted at a fiber festival, I decided to try a swatch of the pattern and embellish it with Lazy Daisy flowers.  I was really excited about it. 

I contacted the Weaver's Loft to see if they would be interested in providing yarn support for this project and they generously agreed.  To support my generous sponsor visit their website here www.weaversloft.com

I got to work on a prototype and had some trouble coming up with a button band I liked.  So I invented one.  It's a double knit strip with that gets sewed to the cardigan with mattress stitch.  

I've made a couple of video's to give a tutorial for the technique. 

I also made a video tutorial on how to embroider the cardigan

 

And finally after weeks of terrible weather, I got to do a photo shoot with my friend Shelby as the model.  She was wonderful and we had an excellent time.  All the clothes except the cardigan were actually hers.  She's a stylish lady.  

 

$5.50