Kim gave me this little kit from Japan after she decided to take a crochet break. I say break because I’m convinced one day I’ll get her back into it… XD

I have done general amigurumi before but I thought this would be a good easy project to learn how to read Japanese charts and patterns.

When I started looking at the charts I realised that while it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, it did require a quick internet search to make sure I was translating the terms correctly.

Bergamot decided not to bother waiting for me and just power through.

Thankfully there were also photos! Because you know, Bergamot can’t read Japanese. >_>

I loved the end result of the kit and the instructions taught me a lot of techniques which will be super useful for other projects but the combination of using a 3mm metal hook which hadn’t been finished well and rubbed against my skin with it’s pointy metal side every stitch and the SCRATCHIEST YARN KNOWN TO MAN made me extremely glad it was over quickly.

The hook made me think about how I could fix it though and I got a bit creative trying to make it more ergonomic. I’ll show you what I did next post!

Of course this style of amigurumi means lots of ends to weave in :/

I only needed half the yarn so I will keep the left overs for details on other projects. I’m thinking it would be nice for noses on bears.

Plus side, it looks so cute when it’s all finished!

I want to order a heap of these eyes and noses so I can make my own things!

I think I had more fun taking photos of the dog than I did making it.

And Bergamot approved of her new friend!

So all in all? Would definitely recommend this kit if you’re trying to learn to make amigurumi. The photos are quite easy to follow and if you have basic crochet skills and do some Googling you don’t really need to read Japanese to understand what’s going on.

Now to order those eyes so I can make more!

Chrissy and I decided to make matching cardigans that we could wear when she came to visit and then neither of us actually finished in time hahaha! You can see how hers turned out on her blog here!

My first step was buying yarn. I really just had single balls and odds and ends in my stash because huge projects like this scared me. I wanted beautiful yarn which would last a long time, be fun to knit with and was kind of luxurious.

Treating myself to high quality yarn was an important part of the motivation for this project because I knew I had to make it work for fear of wasting the money ;D

I went to Morris & Sons and purchased a 10 pack of Fribra Natura Sensational yarn. I was lucky because they were having a super sale and it was heavily discounted.

The yarn I picked was a really bouncy merino super wash which means I don’t need to stress about my hard work being destroyed in the wash. I really loved knitting with this yarn because it’s so squishy and bouncy.

The resulting cardigan is soft and warm enough for winter. It’s been through the wash 5 or so times already and there’s no pilling or particular wear so I would definitely buy more of this yarn.

So the actual sweater knitting part drove me a little bit insane. It’s all knit in one piece from the top down but my inability to read meant that I ended up frogging the front cabled sections once each >_> I am still pretty sure it’s actually not *completely correct* but it looks fine so let’s not talk about that haha!

Over all, the pattern was actually easy to follow for someone who didn’t have experience with that kind of pattern. There were a couple of places during the repeats especially on the arms where I rewrote things out so I could count them more easily but I liked the pattern enough to make another cardigan from it right away after this.

I did find it irritating to have to flip back and forth from the page with the cable instructions to the page with the rest of the instructions so I imported them into a drawing app on my ipad and placed the pages side by side to read at once. This helped me keep track of where I was up to as well because I could mark off on the pattern and just erase that layer on the next repeat.

I made the smallest size and I LOVE the fit of the cardigan. It’s fitted but not too small and the sleeves are fitted too which is one of my pet hates with cardigans.

Make sure you check out Chrissy’s version as even though we went from the same pattern they turned out very differently. You can also see the cabling on hers much more clearly than mine and it’s lovely!

I think what really threw me about the cable sections was that it travels so the cable scallops. I was never really able to memorise the repeats well enough to be able to wing it.

Having such a large amount of stockinette was really great for my first one of these because it meant a nice brain break in between the cabling.

I love the fit and finish of this pattern so much that I’m working on another one right now from it but in a lace stitch. Having looked through Andi Satterlund’s other designs, they are all on my wish list now *_*

And from now on I know to look for top down designs which are knit in one piece because the cardigan I knit after this one was the opposite of that and it drove me NUTS. More on my lace related mental breakdown next time.

So thank you to Chrissy for giving me such an awesome birthday gift and challenging me to try something new! I’ve finished my third cardigan and I’m about to start my 4th soon 😀

This face says “Hmmm which one should I knit next…?”

Bonus photo: yarn rainbow!