CATHERINE long cable knit alpaca cardigan - black

CATHERINE is a long, warm chunky cable knit cardigan in black, worn open - there is no fastening. It falls to below the knee, and at 136 cm around it wraps right across the body. It works as a knitted coat too: through autumn it is warm enough to leave the house in on its own. In black it reads as outerwear rather than a knit, and the cables show as depth instead of pattern.

Wide, deep braids run the full length of each front - big cables, not a fine repeat. The sleeves are left uncabled and cut generously wide, finishing in a deep ribbed cuff that folds back on itself. The back is worked in garter stitch, in broad ridges running across the panel.

The yarn is thick and the knit is left lofty rather than packed tight, so the piece has real volume without the weight that usually comes with it.

It is one size. The body measures 136 cm around and gives about 10 cm more in length once it is on, so it works across a wide range - it is meant to hang loose rather than follow the figure.

The yarn is built around alpaca and merino. Alpaca fibre is hollow, so it traps warmth well, and it carries no lanolin at all; the merino keeps the surface from prickling at the neck and wrists. The full breakdown is below.

Every panel of this piece is knitted to shape on its own - fully-fashioned, never cut out of a length of knitted fabric. The panels are then hand-linked: a person feeds the open stitches onto the linking machine one loop at a time, so the seams stretch with the knit and lie flat instead of pressing on you.

It is hand-finished - hand-steamed over a shaped pad and washed before it leaves the workshop, so it arrives at its true size and stays there. The yarn is spun in Italy.

I design every piece myself, and it is knitted in a small workshop here in Lithuania - a few at a time, never off a production line.

Every piece passes through my hands before it is packed - I check each one myself before it goes out.

It arrives in a plain brown box with the care card inside and nothing else - no filler paper, no leaflets. That is a choice, not a saving - I would rather use less than print something that is made to be thrown away.

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Colour – black.

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One size.
Fits US / CAN 6 (S), 8 (M), 10 (M), 12 (M), 14 (L), 16 (L).
European 36 (S), 38 (M), 40 (L), 42 (L).

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Composition – 30% alpaca wool, 30% merino wool, 10% virgin wool, 30% polyacrylic.

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Dimensions, garment not stretched*:
Length 90 cm / 35,43" - it gives about 10 cm more once it is on.
Width around 136 cm / 53,54".
*as with all knitted garments, these may differ by a few cm.

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CARE:
- Hand wash;
- Maximum washing temperature 30 C;
- When washed, gently squeeze the excess water out of the garment;
- Do not hang the wet garment on a hanger, as it will/may lose it‛s original shape;
- Do not tumble dry;
- Cool iron with steam or other wet method.