Inspiration
Shake Hands with Addams
If you’ve got a copy of MDK Field Guide No. 28: Renewal (and if you don’t have one, here you go), you may know that Norah Gaughan’s long, elegant yet cozy cardigan is named for the American pioneer of social change Jane Addams, who lived from 1860 to 1935. The long silhouette of this coat-length garment felt like a good match for a woman who came of age in the Victorian era, when skirts brushed the pavement and central heating was not really a thing.
In Addams’s times, proper etiquette called for women to greet friends with a cordial handshake. (There were quite a lot of rules about handshakes.) In terms of fashion, there is ample photographic proof that Jane Addams’s jackets and coats were long.
The forerunner of the Addams cardigan was an improvised pandemic project that provided Norah with plenty of relaxing knitting, and then constant, comforting wearing.
The Addams cardigan is as unfussy to knit as its ancestor, but with the addition of long columns of simple, narrow cables that draw the fabric in slightly, giving the garment shape without shaping.
When ace sample knitter Yvonne Allen sent in joyful snapshots of herself modeling Addams fresh off the needles, we were smitten. With its sweep and lightness, and its jaunty notched bands, it’s our new ideal of the coatigan.
For those wondering, the Addams sleeve is constructed in the same seamless manner as for the Bolin cardigan: stitches are picked up around the armhole edge and the sleeve is then knit down, in the round, with no decrease rounds to keep track of. The difference is that for Addams, the sleeve starts out about 2 inches (10 cm) narrower than Bolin’s sleeve, so the fit to the arm is slimmer, but still roomy enough to wear a shirt underneath.
The Yarns
Yes, yarns, plural! Like Bolin, Addams is knitted holding a strand of Felted Tweed together with a strand of Kidsilk Haze, for an impossibly lush yet sturdy fabric that is like no other.
Because there are infinite combinations of Felted Tweed and Kidsilk Haze, we swatched up five favorite pairings. We’ve brought in bounteous quantities of these particular colorways, so we hope you’ll love these as much as we do. Find skein numbers and sizes for Addams here. Kidsilk Haze here; Felted Tweed right here.
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I know it’s dark, but honestly I think this would be incredible in the Treacle Felted Tweed held with Black Currant. And I’d make it a solid foot inches shorter because I can see this as a jackety moment. And I’d have it done sooner! ; )
This cardigan would be perfect for that to the knees bathrobe or houseboat that I keep saying I’ll make one day.
But then my pride takes over and I know I can’t put all that time into something that no one will ever see.
Except my family….and ya they count but not that much. If I’m honest.
Women have very different preferences for the amount of ease we like in clothing. It would really help if you showed that same sample sweater on several different bodies (so different amounts of ease). I saw Yvonne’s pictures on IG. If you have it at MDK headquarters then you probably have lots of great models standing by just waiting to strut that gorgeous thing.
Only so many hours in a day! We’ll try to get some alt views going, it’s just so much going on at the moment. I think the basic thing with ease, for unstructured cardigans like Addams, is that it just gets looser and slouchier, both of which I really love in a sweater. Norah says it looks amazing to go oversized on a cardigan like this, and I take her word pretty much as gospel! ; )
It’s just so beautiful! And that orange (Ginger) tweed with the blush Kidsilk is so luscious. In my dreams I’m afraid.
I see cardigans in my future…all of these. Recently, I heard a recommendation that choosing the buttons first helped choosing colors faster. Does anyone have favorite button resources? These sweaters deserve respectful buttons.
For buttons, I usually go to Carol Fellers ‘Stolen Stitches’ site and a great site called Bare Naked Wool. They have amazing buttons.
Thank you!
Would love to hear button source ideas. I’ve found some on Etsy, at the fabric store, at fiber festivals.
Gorgeous, but I simply cna’t abide dropped shoulders. Will nobody design set in sleeves any more?
Check out One Wild Designs on Ravelry
Set-in sleeves are lovely when one wants a full-fashion fit. The alternative is the angled armhole. Almost as easy as drop. If you’ve a copy of the most recent Vogue Encyclopedia of Knitting, it is a reliable source for guiding you. Surely there are others, that is what came to mind. As a dear friend once said, “The pattern is only a suggestion.”
I love a set-in sleeve too–I’m thinking hard about cooking up the Easel Sweater from Field Guide No. 3: Wild Yarns. I’ve made FOUR of them.
As for dropped shoulders, if Norah Gaughan is telling me to do a dropped-shoulder sweater, I’m here for it! ; )
This is the sweater that stole my heart. I love long cardigans. I’m doing my Felted Tweed in Maritime and the Kidsilk Haze in Ghost. I even did a swatch, and it looks like faded denim, which is exactly what I was going for! I am so excited to make this! I just have to fit it in between all the socks from the last Field Guide…
What is not beautiful in this new book !
I want to knit every single thing !
All of the designs are “ to die for “
I love this as a light winter coat (in the south)
Another dreamy sweater from Norah! We used to say that KSH was the bacon of yarn, it makes everything better. Not if you are kosher or vegan, but still, you get the idea! Maybe a bit shorter and jacket like?
As for buttons … in Vienna last August, my iPhone and I took a lovely stroll through the city toward our Viking longboat on the Danube. The path was selected for a stop at the yarn shop shown on the map about halfway. It felt a bit like Harry Potter’s search for Track 8-1/2. As I reached the marked address, there was a dusty window and a locked door. Deflated, I turned to go and spotted a simple door across the alcove with a clean window and the same name (which I’ve since forgotten) as the closed yarn shop. Upon entering, I found myself in a tiny shop the size of a walk-in closet, with walls lined with boxes and boxes of buttons. Just two sad skeins of yarn, but that no longer mattered. I spent a marvelous 45 minutes browsing and selecting a few beautiful sets, sharing the tiny space with the non-English-speaking proprietor, a mother and daughter on a serious search for something specific, and a college-age young man and his friend, who needed jut one black button and a needle and thread.
David Brooks’s essay on Addams makes me want to make the cardi, just to pay homage to the woman! Nice that it’s also *gorgeous*!