Patient Hours · 1980s Hand-Knitted Pastel Cable Baby Cardigan
Wool · hand-knitted cable panels · pastel stripe · V-neck · pink buttons · handmade, no label · 1970s to 1980s · AU size 0-1, approx 6-18 months
Pastel stripes in pink, lavender, yellow, and white, running the length of a small cable cardigan, hand-knitted in fine wool for a baby. The cables are what make this: they run up each front panel and along the sleeves, a proper display of skill packed into a very small garment.
No label, 1970s to 1980s. You do not arrive at cables without practice. They require counting and attention and the ability to hold stitches on a needle while you work others: a technique that takes time to learn and longer to execute neatly. Whoever knitted this was confident enough to add them to a piece about 25cm long, for a baby who would grow out of it in months. That is the particular love of a handknitted baby garment. The pastel nursery palette dates this warmly and precisely to its decade; the V-neck and small pink buttons are the finishing details of someone who knew exactly what they were making.
The kind of cardigan that a grandmother knitted during the evenings, with a particular baby in mind.
Care
Hand wash only, cool. Press water out gently in a towel. Dry flat in shape away from heat so the cables hold their definition.
More on looking after vintage pieces in our care guide.
Size
Measured flat: length 25cm, chest 27cm, sleeve length 16cm. Fits approximately AU size 0-1, around 6 to 18 months.
Our size guide explains how vintage sizing is read here.
Condition
Very good. The cables are even and bright, the buttons original. Kept well.
Our condition lexicon explains the grades we use.
Before it reaches you
Someone loved this before you did, and I try to honour that properly. Each piece is hand washed, or cleaned in the way that the fabric permits, then steamed until it softens and straightens and feels newly attended to. Wherever a button was missing, it has been replaced with a vintage one from my long-kept collection. Wherever a hem had given way, I fix it by hand. By the time it leaves this room it is genuinely clean, pressed, whole, and looked over one final time before I let myself believe it is ready. Not restored. Not made new. Just returned to a state where it can be loved again, by someone who was not there the first time.
Every cable is a row of hours held on a needle and counted twice, which is why a cardigan like this weighs more with time than it does with wool. Knitted in the evenings for a baby who would outgrow it by spring, it was made in the full and cheerful knowledge that love and usefulness seldom last the same length. The pastel stripes are set in the order of a good week, and the pink buttons keep them fastened in that order. Wear it out entirely and it simply begins counting the next child's hours instead.