- showing off your sense of colour

- keeping you warm when it’s cold

- staying cooler when it’s warm (because you can undo everything down the front and still look great)

- looking slimmer (if that’s what you want – yo!) because you end up with long vertical lines down the front, which are immediately flattering for most people.

You might like to think of it as a gorgeous palette of long lines.

This is how I do it when I want to have fun and I have a bit of time to myself:

You first lay out on your bed your knitted cardigans, shirts and blouses – anything that opens down the front.  And you also want to lay out any attractive scarves that you’d like to wear, and all your little tops/vests that you can wear for the bottom layer.

You now look for colours that blend or contrast in exciting ways.

At first you want to be open to playing with the colours – mixing and matching them.  At this stage you don’t want to think about practicalities.  Just lay the articles on top of each other so that you can see a band of each item that’s underneath, so that you’re noticing the exciting combinations that are possible.  And you can swap them around a lot.

Remember you’re wanting one little top for the innermost layer for each combination of clothes.

When you’ve got a colour combination that excites you, you put on the little top in that combo for your bottom layer, and then put on the tightest item of clothing – it’s likely to be a shirt of some kind.  Leave the buttons undone .  Then you put on the next tightest, and so on.  You don’t want to make it uncomfortable – it’s at this stage you might have to reject an item or two for comfort reasons.

But beware any chunky cardis when layering, because the chunkier the cardi, the bigger you look.

A lot of the time you might want to put the longest item on last, but often it can look pretty cool to have something shorter on top.

This is just one of the many reasons why I love knitted cardigans rather than sweaters!  If you liked this post, do bookmark this post, won’t you (there’s a bookmark button at the bottom of this post), and subscribe to my feed by clicking on the “RSS” 3rd line from the bottom in the left column.  That way you get to know when I post new articles to this site.  Have fun.  Love Katy x

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Change the buttons

I’m a collector of buttons and have a tin of them that I love to look through. If you keep the buttons of any clothes you throw away you can gather a fine collection.  Also one of my local charity (thrift) stores has a button box that I loved to sift through when I was just starting my collection.

The buttons need to fit easily through the button-holes but not slip through too easily or they’ll come undone. If you’ve got a lot of spare buttons then you can sift through your collection and put on one side all the buttons that might look good.  Look for glamorous ones, for example. Then hold each of them to your cardigan to see how it looks.  When you’ve filtered the possibilities down to just a few then try the cardigan on and hold the buttons in front of the cardi to see which one will be best.

If you haven’t got any spare buttons then let your imagination fly.  Think about gorgeous bright colours – what colour buttons do you think would give your cardi the right lift that you’re looking for, or that would look daring (if daring is what you’re aiming for!)? Or you might like to think of different styles of buttons.  Especially look out for glamorous ones. If you visit a store where there’s a good selection then you’re bound to see some that get you going.

You’ll be amazed at how this can transform a knitted cardigan!

Add ribbons – first style

The first tip for using ribbons is for a cardigan that doesn’t easily meet in the middle, or a bolero or shrug that you want to revamp – this is a great one for giving it a new look.

You want two bits of ribbon of the same length, and you attach them to the front edges of the cardigan where the gap is at its narrowest. Make sure that your ribbons are long enough to tie an attractive bow. That looks so-o-o lovely!

Add ribbons – second style

Another way to add ribbons is for a cardi that you can overlap a bit in front. For this you want much longer ribbons, long enough to wrap right around your waist and more, depending on which tying style you want to use: you can tie them at the back, or if you have much longer ribbons then you can if you want wrap them right around you and to the front again, and tie them at the front.

This time you attach them at or near the bottom corners of the cardi. It’s probably best to pin them on with safety pins first, so that you can try them out and see whether you want to attach them higher or lower.

Normally the ribbon attached on the right-hand side will go over the left side of your cardigan and the one on the left will go under the right side of the cardigan.

You’ll find that when you wrap them around you, the back of the cardigan will lift up in order for the two ribbons to meet.  That doesn’t matter – it’s all part of the look, which is just lovely.

I hope you enjoy trying out one or all of these ideas. If you enjoyed reading these tips please do bookmark them using the “BOOKMARK” button below.

And please do subscribe to the RSS feed near the bottom of the left column, and then you’ll know when I’ve added new posts and articles to this Knitted Cardigans blog.  Au revoir – love Katy x

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If you found this post useful please do bookmark it using the “BOOKMARK” button just below won’t you. And please do subscribe to my RSS feed (the 3rd line from the bottom in the left column) so that you’ll know when new items are posted to this knitted cardigans blog.   I look forward to being with you again soon. Love Katy  x

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Please always follow any instructions on the garment or instructions that came with it. If you knitted the cardigan yourself, you’ll want to check the yarn label first for any instructions.

You shouldn’t use biological detergents on wool, angora, cashmere or any other animal fibres – they will damage the garments, which of course are made from biological products. And please don’t use detergents which have as ingredients “bleach” or “bleach activators”. And – of course – don’t use bleach!

Also, I recommend that you avoid washing your knitted cardigans too frequently if they are made of wool, angora or cashmere.

Angora cardigans: should only be hand-washed (not washed in the washing machine). Then leave them to dry on a flat surface.

Cashmere cardigans: cashmere should be kept out of extreme heat and sunlight. Some cashmere cardigans are dry-clean only – you’ll want to check the label for this.

Washing

Preferably use Woolite or a mild soap solution. You can check that any other detergent or powder is suitable for wool by reading the small print. Please don’t use biological detergents. Some detergents have a wool symbol on the package showing that they condition and protect wool garments.

Washing machine: use the wool cycle, and ensure that your washing machine is set to 40 degrees maximum. Then use a gentle spin at about 600rpm (no higher than this). You’ll need to check your washing machine’s wool program – it might require the spin speed to be controlled separately.

Hand wash: wash gently in warm or lukewarm (not hot) soapy water (for example with Woolite or with Lux flakes added). For mohair, use lukewarm (tepid) water.

When rinsing, don’t wring the garment – that would be likely to ruin it.

Rinse in cool water, and very gently squeeze much of the water out.

If you have a spin drier, you can use a gentle spin at about 600rpm (no higher), and a very short spin.

If you don’t have a spin drier, lay the cardigan in a towel, fold the towel around it, and gently press the towel to remove the water.

Drying

Don’t use high temperatures and don’t tumble dry – it could shrink or perhaps even burn a hole in the garment. Instead, after spinning, pull your cardigan gently into shape, and place it so that air can flow around the garment but make sure it is supported, so that it stays in shape. Draping it over a drying horse or laying it on a horizontal shelf made of rails (such as many airer-dryers are made of) is ideal.

If you look after your knitted cardigans carefully you’ll find that they can look wonderful for many years!

Please do bookmark this article using the Bookmark button below, won’t you. Also, you might like to see my blog post “How to wash knitted cardigans – the videos“.   If you subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the “RSS” 3rd line from the bottom in the left column) then you’ll know when new items are added to this blog .  Katy  x

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