I’ve been knitting for about three years or so now, and in some respects I’m quite happy with my progress. I mean, it took me about half of that time to learn to cast on, so viewed in those terms, the rather meagre output of projects I’ve actually finished becomes more… justifiable, right? I’ve learned to knit in the round, and have provided the tiny daughter with two hats, two sets of legwarmers (which are perfect when worn over tights if she’s in the sling; her little legs stick out either side but don’t get cold), and a pixie hat knitted flat. I’ve also managed a scarf for Quercus, and a rather appealing Tibetan-style hat, together with numerous scarflets for me, made up from the walnut-sized pieces of wool I tend to end up with when I actually finish something off.

Anyway, having just finished a particularly delightful hat for the witchling (this doesn’t mean my ego has achieved yet unknown altitudes, but that the hat is delightful because she’s in it, I think, and also, the wool! the wool! is just so nice – it’s a Noro yarn, and it looks like autumn in a ball), I am now contemplating something big. Something serious. Something about which no sane mortal should joke.

Yes.

I want to knit…

A CARDIGAN.

Well, a cardigan for the tiny daughter, anyway. The thing is, though, that things are all good until I sit down and start looking at a pattern. I mean, I know how to knit, and to purl, and, with some thought, to increase and decrease. I can do kitchener stitch, thanks to this last hat effort, and I can knit magic loop-style if need be. But when I read all that k2tog and psso business, something in my head just starts thinking about lemon curd, or purple, or, indeed, anything unrelated to the task in hand. If I can look at a pattern and see how it’s done without having to read abbreviations (shudder), then I’m fine. If not, then I’m a bit stuffed, to be honest. I think I have Knitter’s Fear. The abbreviations maketh me crazy, and dimwitted.

So, with this in mind, has anyone got any recommendations for a s-i-m-p-l-e cardigan pattern for small people, the sort of thing which is done in double knitting and uses, say, 5mm needles? Your prize for suggesting something idiot-proof will be pictures of the tiny daughter in her hat (SO SWEET, although I am aware that I have probably got my maternal goggles on there, and other people may just think ‘huh – kid in hat – and?’) and pictures, rather than a hideously long-drawn-out commentary, of our gorgeous newly-rendered house, which looks like cinder toffee at the moment, courtesy of its first coat of limewash (which we squeaked in just before the first frost, over last weekend).