A Fragrant Fourteenth Birthday Present

Back in 2012, one of my knitting projects was a red worsted cardigan. The yarn I used for it came from a red hoodie I'd made circa 2010 and only worn a few times because I found it too bulky and unflattering. I thought I'd get more wear out the cardigan. However, this proved not to be the case because the cardigan's collar didn't sit right and the sleeves were too long. I always meant to fix those things, but never got around to it. One day in the fall of 2022 as I was tidying up my sweater cupboard, it struck me that rather than fixing that sweater (which, after all, I didn't need) I could take it apart and use the yarn to make something I would otherwise have to spend money on: a sweater for my grandniece Cauliflower's 14th birthday present this summer. The red would suit Cauliflower quite well, the sweater(s) had been so little worn that the yarn was still good as new, and I'd be sure to have enough given that I was going to be going down two sizes and had an untouched 100 gram skein of the yarn in my stash to boot.

I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern for the yarn and came up with the Cabled Yoke Pullover, from Patons. It's classic enough to be a safe choice and detailed enough to be interesting, and also a free pattern. 

The construction of the sweater was rather interesting. The patterns says to knit the cable shoulder strip first, seam it together at the ends, pick up stitches around the top of the cabled strip to make the collar, then pick up stitches at the bottom of the cabled strip to knit the body of the sweater. My version, which I made in a women's size extra small/small, knitted up relatively quickly and without incident, and I was contented with the result. This sweater used up 673 grams out of the 900 grams of red worsted I had started with. 

And then I realized I still had 227 grams of the red yarn left. What should I do with it?

Two hundred and twenty grams is more than enough to make a hat, and I thought Cauliflower might like a matching hat for her sweater, so I searched Ravelry for a suitable tam pattern in worsted. I looked specifically for a cabled design that would work with the pullover. I chose the Sweet and Slouchy Hat, designed by Kim Haesemeyer. I was able to check a copy of the book the pattern is in out of the Toronto Public Library and work from it. 

Initially I thought I'd make two of these tams: one for Cauliflower, and one for me. There was enough yarn for two tams and it'd be nice to get all that red yarn finally used up. But then I began to think about what I would wear the red tam with, and when I couldn't seem to imagine it working with any of my coats or outfits, I decided that I was unlikely to ever wear it and therefore shouldn't make it. The rest of the red yarn can remain in my stash until I have a genuine use for it.

Here's the finished tam. Ironically, and exasperatingly, after deciding not to make this hat twice, I did end up knitting it twice, because the first time I made it, I was less than ten rows away from completion when I switched to DPNs and realized that I had knitted the entire thing on the wrong size needles, and that it was too small. Such a stupid error, but it's the kind of bone-headed mistake I make when I'm tired.

This hat took 90 grams of yarn, bringing my total yarn stash decrease for this project to 763 grams.

With the sweater and tam set done, I made Cauliflower the owl pendant ribbon necklace you see depicted above, as described in an earlier post. She has a thing for owl stuff, and it seemed like a cute, fun, accessory, suitable for a 14-year-old girl. 

The assembled gift components. I spent nothing at all on the sweater and cap, and very little on the necklace, so I also bought Cauliflower a bottle of Kenzie's "So Pretty" eau de parfum from the Shopper's Drug Mart $20 sale display rack. They didn't have a tester for that kind of perfume, and I'm crossing my fingers it has a nice scent to it.

And I also hope that Cauliflower will find these items useful in the fall, when she begins a new chapter in her life as a brand new high school student. But then classic knitwear, cute jewelry, and smelling pretty never hurt anyone's chances of being a social and academic success.