Flying Donegal

Spring was super busy for me as a designer but oh how nice it is now to have all these patterns ready for publishing.

What: Flying Donegal / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 3.5 mm

From: Genuine Soft Donegal by Lentävä Lapanen, 350 g

The story of this cardigan began last year. Just before Christmas I was visiting a lovely LYS, Lentävä Lapanen (the Flying Mitten) with my trunk show for my very first e-book The Girl Who Said Baa. The lovely shop keepers asked me if I would like to design something for their very own Soft Donegal yarn.

I really wanted to keep things simple for a change. Easy raglan sleeves, stockinette stitch, and a few cables to keep the knitting interesting.

Desinging, or at least doing the math, always begins with a swatch. I worked a small swatch of plain stockinette stitch and let it soak for a while. Oh boy, what a surprise the yarn gave me! Soft Donegal is a single ply merino yarn with tweed. It's soft and rustic at the same time. But once you soak it, all the twist in the yarn vanishes. The yarn opens up completely turning the knitted fabric into this soft velvet thing. I was in love and in a hurry to knit my sample cardigan!

So I did design this simple piece with raglan sleeves. There are three cables in the back and the rest of the cardigan is stockinette stitch - with the purl side on top. 

The cardigan is worked flat back and forth except for the sleeves which are worked in the round. If you hate purling, you can easily work the sleeves inside out and just knit them all the way.

The cuffs and hem are garter stitch. It doesn't stand out much, it's just a bit fuller than the stockinette stitch. A nice, subtle effect. The cardigan is finished with a shawl collar. Flying Donegal is meant be worn open or with a shawl pin. Although, it would be really easy to add button holes while working the shawl collar.

You can find the pattern with all of its nine sizes, XXS-XS-S [M1-M2-L1] L2-XL-XXL, on Ravelry. And you can get 20 % off the price with the code FLYDONEGALFLY until July 7th. Choose your size with approx. 4''/10 cm positive ease.

The yarn was sponsored by Lentävä Lapanen and we took the pics at one of my favorite places on earth, Kotka, Sapokka.