Tiny Tea Leaves Cardigan

The completed Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi in Noro Aya.

It seems like a day and an age ago since I emigrated to Australia at the end of January. Faced with the prospect of some long-haul flying I was armed to the teeth with a wodge of Noro Aya, a Tiny Tea Leaves cardigan pattern as well as bamboo circular knitting needles to convince airport security that I was not a potential garroter of pilots.

Taaaa daaa! Here's the completed Tiny Tea leaves sported by delighted and (at the time of the photo shoot) industrious recipient the Cherub.

She tells me that she likes the stripes. So that's marvellous news and a bit of a relief after all the effort. At first I was informed that the colours were, in no uncertain terms, "yuk". This is her special and nuanced term of indifference, which usually means I am utterly stuffed and have a snowball's chance in Tahiti of changing the Cherub's mind. Fortunately, the completed ensemble demanded different and careful consideration which resulted in approval.

In all honesty thought, my world has not been set alight. Ok, I agree with the Cherub that the stripes are impressive. But whether it was the yarn - I had my doubts when I started - or the pattern or the combination of pattern with this yarn, I just don't feel this has quite worked. The mixture of silk, cotton and wool in the Aya is rather "rustic" in texture. This in addition to an already heavily textured yoke on the cardigan plus a spectacular spectrum of variegated colour and it's all...

...a bit much. Or maybe each element is a bit lost because of the other elements, none able to stand out and say "LOOK AT ME! AM I NOT BEAUTIFUL AND RUSTIC / TEXTURED / COLOURFUL?!". Hmmm.

In addition the neckline has proved very loose, with the poor Cherub insisting that the cardi is "just perfect" whilst attempting to hoik up drooping neckline over shoulder from where it has been sitting somewhere around an elbow.

But I am a forgiving individual. I'll give the Aya another chance, soon to be incarnated in a crocheted skinny scarf courtesy of a Simply Crochet from May 2013. And next year I'll give the Tea Leaves another crack but in a simple DK. Maybe simplicity should have been my watch word for this project but, hey ho, when you're permanently leaving a beloved country for another it's fair to say one's mind isn't always thinking as clearly as it should.

Cardigan as metaphor for Emigration. Now there's a thought.

(Images: Zoë F. Willis)