A while back I wrote about some recycled yarn in a review for Love Knitting, Rowan's Purelife Revive. It's a cotton and silk blend, made from recycled garments that are stripped down and respun into a new yarn. Each colorway is named for a different stone, and if you get a close look at the yarn you can see why - despite one major color overtone it is covered with tiny flecks of color, just like you would see in a slab of granite. The colorway you see here is Pumice.
To go along with this summery, eco-friendly yarn, Rowan came out with a collections of patterns called the Purelife Recycled Collection. I've been working on Cardoon for a little while now and finally recently finished it. The pattern itself is fairly simple, with a rib stitch making up the entire garment. It does require seaming, but the gauge was large enough that I did not find it too cumbersome.
One thing I will recommend about this pattern is to make one size smaller than you would normally wear. Mine is a size medium because I wanted a little bit of ease (my normal size is on the small end of the medium range), but it ended up quite a bit looser than I anticipated. I'm still happy with the oversized sweater look that I got (since that's what I was going for), but if I had wanted a more fitted sweater the outcome would not have met my expectations.
The sleeve would tend to slip off my shoulder in the sleeveless dress I wore it with, but when styled with a t-shirt and unbuttoned it seems to stay in place pretty well.
The Purelife Recycled Collection is full of down to earth knits for a transitional season such as spring. I admit, the beautiful photos of the country make me itch for a little excursion out of the city. I too want to frolic in a field of native grass wearing a delightfully chunky tunic! Several of these are probably going onto my queue...
Check out Purelife Revive and the pattern collection.
