I’ve found that as I’ve become more and more obsessed with knitting, I have a real aversion to buying knitwear. I see sweaters in shops and dismiss them. Either because of fibre snobbery or because I don’t like the colour and in the end, “I could knit that myself” is always at the front of my mind. Despite the fact that I never actually do…

I was sorely tempted the other day, though, when I went to Dorothy Perkins on a hunt for a blouse and found this cardigan:

It’s a cute shape, and in a not-too-awful cotton acrylic blend, but it was the stitch pattern that made me draw breath. It’s only my very favourite lace leaf pattern!

In the end I didn’t buy one because the shop only had two colours in stock. The green was too bright for me, and the black didn’t come in my size. But I’ll remember it, and maybe one day I’ll use the pattern for a cardigan of my own design.