phila*craft

a crocheted baby cardigan dip-dyed with black walnut husks, cutch and logwood and embellished with madder dyed woolMATERIALS: five skeins Knit Picks' Merino Style in Vanilla and one each of Fog, Nutmeg, and Cornflower, six naturally shed antler buttons & recycled madder dyed yarn for embroidered details
PATTERN: Lesley Stanfield's Icelandic Cardigan from Adorable Crochet for Babies and Toddlers
NOTES: I substituted Merino Style for the Jaeger yarn called for in the pattern. Comparing ballbands, it looks like MS is an ideal substitute yard for yard, by weight and by gauge, but I found I needed two more skeins of the main color than were specified in the pattern. I was really unhappy about the too-bright purple cast of the Cornflower. The black walnuts came to the rescue. After soaking the sweater in water for a half hour or so, I put it in the pot of extracted dye and turned the heat on low. I let the piece simmer in there for about five minutes and then left it in the pot all night. I didn't like how that turned out, so I added alum, cutch and logwood to the pot, let the sweater come up to a simmer for 20 minutes and left it to cool overnight in the pot. I can tell whether wool is the color I want by squeezing one part of it right over the dyepot. Though the final color once the piece has dried will be lighter than what you see, you can get a pretty good idea of what you'll get this way.

This is not an EZ pattern, but I think the finished sweater looks like it was pulled from a bog. I searched for information on the web to back up this claim, but came away instead with the realization that my son takes after his father's side of the family. the undyed yoke