Meanwhile, I've been motoring up the body of my Fusion Cardigan. Remember, this is a piece that brings together gansey motifs with Scandanavian style. The two are related, of course, but I found after my initial swatching that it was important not to have so much going on that the garment was conFusing to the eye. Gone now are the brocade diamonds. They would have interfered with waist shaping anyway. Also, after Isabel stated emphatically that she would not wear any garment with motifs even remotely resembling hearts (there was a hint of this in my first swatch--only a hint), I switched the colour motif to a tree of life, a motif common to both the gansey and fair isle traditions. A couple of days ago I finished the stranded border on the body. Before moving on, I transferred all the stitches to some waste yarn and wet blocked the whole thing to check on gauge and size.
Yesterday, when the piece was dry, it went back onto the needles for the body.
Notice how nice and drapey the blocked piece is now. I think I'm in love with Quince's Chickadee,
and I think I love the wrong side as much as the right!
