A Letter From Michelle: The Daisy
A Letter From Michelle
Look at the back of it before you look at the front.
On the one thing I check before a patterned cardigan goes on the rack, where the corners nearly always get cut, and why the Daisy is $69.95.
I have a habit that embarrasses my daughters. When a sample arrives I do not hold it up to look at it. I turn it around and look at the back first.
Twenty years at a counter teaches you where things go wrong, and with a patterned cardigan it is almost always the same place. The pattern looks wonderful across the chest, and then you turn it over and the back is plain. Or the body is covered and the sleeves are bare. Somebody has knitted the part a photograph will show and stopped.
You find out about three weeks later, when somebody behind you in line is looking at the half of it you cannot see.
The Daisy is the one that passed. The band goes around the whole yoke, continues down both sleeves, and comes back around the hem — front, back and sides, unbroken.
Nobody puts that in a product description. It is simply more work, and it is the difference between a patterned cardigan and a cardigan with a pattern on the front of it.
There were six things I would not give up on.
The pattern goes all the way around
Lay it out and you can see it in one go. The yoke band runs the full circle of the shoulders. The same band appears again at both cuffs, and a third time across the hem, carrying on around the back.
The sleeves are the tell. A sleeve is the fiddliest place to carry a pattern through, because the stitch count changes as it tapers, so a cheap version leaves the sleeves plain and hopes nobody minds. Somebody always minds — usually about a month in, when they realize the sweater only works from the front.
“What I like most is that the pattern continues onto the sleeves. It makes the whole cardigan feel thoughtfully put together. The cream and darker details go well with the plain pants I usually wear.”
Evelyn S., SpringfieldIt is knitted in, not printed on
The second thing I look at is whether the colors are stitches or ink. Hold the Daisy up to a window and the pattern reads from both sides, because each color is its own strand of yarn worked into the knitting rather than a design pressed onto a finished gray sweater.
That matters for a dull, practical reason. A print sits on the surface and eventually wears, cracks or fades off it. Color that is knitted in cannot go anywhere, because it is not on the cardigan — it is the cardigan.
It also explains the hand of it. A printed panel goes slightly stiff; this stays soft the whole way across, including through the patterned band.
“Soft and comfortable for an evening with a book. Very happy with this one.”
Lois D., Grand JunctionThe gray is doing most of the work
Count the proportions, because this is why it goes with what you own. The body and the upper sleeves are plain heathered gray. The pattern is three bands — the yoke, the cuffs, the hem — in rust, cream and a soft olive, with a rust placket running down the front.
So the garment is mostly a gray cardigan. The color arrives in a band around your shoulders and another at your wrists, which is enough to make it a particular thing to be wearing without asking anything of your pants.
“The rust-colored trim looks so pretty against the gray. I’ve been wearing mine with jeans and brown boots.”
Valerie H., Missoula“I’m fairly picky about patterned sweaters, but these colors felt easy for me to wear. The gray keeps it familiar, and the rust adds a little warmth to the look. I paired it with black pants for dinner at my brother’s house. Another day, I wore it with jeans for coffee. I like that I can change the outfit without having to think too hard about it.”
Janice M., DavenportA round neck, and that is deliberate
I sell a great many collared cardigans and I will defend them to anyone. But a collar competes with a patterned yoke — you end up with two things happening in the same few inches, and neither wins.
So the Daisy has a plain ribbed round neck that sits flat, leaves the pattern room to be seen, and goes over a simple tee without anything bunching at the back of your neck. The buttons are small and pale rather than matched to the knit, which is what keeps the front from reading as a solid stripe.
“I prefer a round neckline, so this caught my attention. It sits nicely over a simple tee without a collar getting in the way. The little light-colored buttons are a lovely detail.”
Martha K., PaducahIt gets worn open more than closed
Almost everybody who writes to us about this one describes wearing it open, and the cardigan is built for it. The rust placket runs the full length of the front, so unbuttoned you get two vertical lines of color down either side of whatever you have on.
Closed, the yoke pattern joins up into a complete ring and it becomes the warmer, more deliberate version. Both are fine. It is just worth knowing that the open version is the one you will reach for, and the cardigan was cut with that in mind.
“I bought the Daisy for a weekend at a cabin with friends. I wanted something cozy that I’d also feel nice wearing into town. The pattern around the shoulders gives it that old-fashioned sweater look I’ve always liked. I wore it open over a cream shirt most of the time. It was just the sort of cardigan I’d pictured for the trip.”
Connie R., Bangor“I wanted a button cardigan I could leave open while working at my desk. This has been a pleasant extra layer on cool mornings. I especially like the ribbed cuffs and the contrast along the front.”
Catherine B., BellinghamS through 3XL, every size the same price
Six sizes, one price whichever you take. The shape is relaxed rather than fitted and sits at the hip, so take what you usually take; go up one if you want a sweater rather than a tee underneath it in January.
One honest note on fit. A yoke pattern sits across the top of the chest and shoulders, so it is the one place I would not size down to make it neat. Give it the room and the band sits where it is meant to.
The Daisy, against the patterned cardigan you nearly bought
| Most patterned cardigans | The Daisy | |
|---|---|---|
| The back of it | Plain, usually | The band carries around |
| The sleeves | Left bare | Pattern runs down both |
| How the color got there | Printed on the surface | Knitted in, strand by strand |
| After a year | The print has worn | There is no print to wear |
| Neckline | A collar fighting the yoke | Flat ribbed round neck |
| Sizes | Patterns stop at XL, often | S to 3XL, one price |
None of this is visible in a photograph of the front. That is exactly why it is worth saying out loud.
Why we are clearing it now
It was $229.95 on the rack, and that is roughly what a yoke cardigan costs when nobody cuts the corner: three colors carried through the knitting instead of one, a band worked around the full circle of the shoulders, the same band taken down both tapering sleeves and around the hem, ribbing at the neck, the cuffs and the bottom, and a placket finished in a contrast color rather than the cheapest matching yarn.
But the shop turns twenty this year. My daughters Julie and Amy are both at the counter most days now, which is not something I let myself count on when my husband and I opened the doors in 2006. We wanted to mark it by handing something back to the women who kept those doors open, so the Daisy goes out at under a third of what it was.
At $69.95 it costs less than the plain gray cardigan you would have bought instead, and the plain gray one would have been plain on the back too.
★★★★★4.8 out of 5 — from 3,369+ reviews
$229.95$69.95
20th Anniversary Sale — Save 70%
- The patterned band runs the full circle of the yoke
- It continues down both sleeves and around the hem
- Color knitted in strand by strand, not printed on
- A heathered gray body, so it goes with what you own
- A flat ribbed round neck, with no collar in the way
- Small pale buttons down a contrast rust placket
- Ribbed neck, cuffs and hem that hold their shape
- A relaxed, hip-length fit, S through 3XL at one price
- Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee
Every size the same price · while they last
One more thing, and then I will let you look.
Everything I have told you here is the sort of thing you would work out for yourself in about four seconds if the cardigan were on a rack in front of you. You would turn it around. You would run the sleeve through your fingers. You would know.
You cannot do that through a screen, which is the whole awkwardness of selling anything this way, and it is why I would rather spend a page telling you what I checked than another photograph of the front of it.
If it arrives and it is not what I have described, send it back. That offer is the only part of this letter that costs me anything.
With love and gratitude,
— Michelle · The Hayes Family Hamptons
SEE THE DAISY — $69.95 →This is a personal letter from Michelle Hayes, co-founder of The Hayes Family Hamptons. Customer reviews are quoted as written. · Free UPS shipping · 30-day money-back guarantee.