Seriously though, I think a friend had it right: there’s a certain rustic, medieval feel to this garment, accentuated by the wooden toggle buttons at the bottom. I used a single skein of Schaefer Yarns’ Elaine in the Indira Gandhi colourway.

 

I kind of had to buy the yarn. I mean, she’s definitely the Indian I most resemble aside from my grandmother. She- IG, not my Naani- was the closest India ever got to a dictator. Quite the lady. I could tell you about how her policies are the bedrock upon which India’s current relative economic health is founded but I think we’d all probably rather talk about yarn.

 

 

Seriously, its a great book for knitters of any level. It even has pictures of how the stitches are supposed to look in the intro section! How useful is that? I despise books that give these bizarre written instructions for how to hold your needles and your yarn and blah blah blah but don’t actually show you what the end product is supposed to look like. Also, the patterns are designed to encourage modification which I certainly did.

 

I used yarnovers to do the raglan increases so i’ve got pretty eyelets, made it sleeveless to suit the amount of yarn I had and did crochet loops as edging cum buttonholes up one side. And, best of all, NO SEWING. Sweet.