Knititude

Elven Armor Pullover

The Fellowship of the Knits: the Unofficial Lord of the Rings Knitting Book, by the tireless Tanis Gray, has been released, and I'm thrilled that two of my patterns are included: the Elven Armor Pullover, and the Horse Banner Fingerless Mitts.

I wrote this post mainly as a tutorial for the construction of the Elven Armor Pullover; kudos and thanks to those who decide to knit this pattern, because it is not easy! But it is one of my favorites of my own designs: it is both wearable and unique. So I want to make the process and the pattern as easy to follow as possible.

Both of these patterns were great fun to conceive and design; having been a Lord of the Rings fan since childhood, I had read all of the books, and seen all of the movies as soon as they came out. So I started by re-watching the movies, skipping and fast-forwarding a fair amount, and looking for knitting ideas. I found the inspiration for the Elven Armor Pullover in the layered wrappings of the battle armor worn by the Elves of Rivendell, as seen both on Elrond, and on the statues guarding the entrance to that Elven outpost.

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I do enjoy a knitting design challenge, and this pullover was certainly that; first I had to figure out how to translate that wrapped look into knitting, and I quickly decided that the only way to do that was to construct a base garment, and then attach overlapping strips to it to simulate the wrapped look. I also quickly decided that the layers shown over the shoulders would make the sweater too costume-y, but the layers around the torso and lower sleeves could be both Elvish, and wearable (and beautiful) on humans.

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Then I figured out how to shape the base garment (above photos); I kept it cropped both because it made the design easier - no waist shaping, which would keep the overlapping wrappings from laying properly; and fewer wrappings - I knew these would be repetitive and tedious to work! The shaping increases and decreases are used as landmarks for placing the overlapping strips (see markers showing where strips will be attached, in photo below).

Rather than knit the strips separately and then sew them on, I decided to pick up stitches from the base garment and knit the strips onto it. This is more complicated in some ways, but it does ensure that the strips are the right length and that their shaping (yes, they had to be shaped to follow the contours of the base garment) is in the right place.  

The fact that the top strip has to follow the edge of the neckline and then pass under the arms dictated both the slope of the V-neck and the angle of the top strip, but the slope of the neckline didn't work well for the bottom edge of the front of the pullover, which is why the angle of the strips changes slightly from bottom to top. The shaping increases at the center front are spaced farther apart than the decreases along the sides, because the side decreases end just before the underarm, and the front increases extend to the bottom of the V-neck, so using these as guides for the strips ensures the correct angle for each strip. (The bottom strip is worked first, with the base garment upside down, and then the upper strips are added in sequence.) The photo above shows a couple of ways the path for picking up stitches for one of the angled strips can be marked: with removable markers, and/or by using a tapestry needle to thread a piece of waste yarn through a dozen or so of the stitches along the line between the front and side markers.

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Photos above show starting to pick up stitches for one of the strips. I recommend using a flexible, long circular needle a size smaller than that used for knitting, with a pointy needle tip, to make this process easier (all stitches for each strip will be picked up and placed on the needle before beginning to knit the strip). In the second photo, the needle tip is pointing to one of the increases that will be used as a marker for one of the strips.

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The above photos show stitches being picked up for the top strip, along the back neck and across the shoulder to the front neck. The photo below shows the line of picked up stitches for the top strip transitioning from the bottom of the V-neck across the right front towards the right underarm.

The top strip is worked in two pieces to allow it to appear to cross itself at the base of the front neck. 

Across the back, the layered strips are level, meaning that it is important NOT to cross a knitted row when picking up stitches for each strip, but rather to follow a single knitted row all the way across the back.

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The above photo shows where I tacked down the top strip, as it tended to flip up otherwise.

Also see the instructional videos I have posted on my YouTube channel, with "Elven Armor Pullover" in the title. 

Farewell, and may the blessing of Elves and Men and all Free Folk go with you. May the stars shine upon your faces! (Elrond, in The Fellowship of the Rings)

Additional notes:

Book photos courtesy of @insighteditions and @tanisknits

I do not own the rights to this pattern, so I cannot offer it for sale as an individual pattern PDF. I don't know if the publisher (Reel Ink Press) has any plans to do so. 

 

 

Let's talk about what a pain knitting can be.

The most important takeaway from this post: DO NOT get carpal tunnel surgery until you've looked into whether that tingling and numbness in your fingers is caused by something else! Read on: 

Do you sometimes have tingling and/or numbness in your fingers after you've been knitting for awhile? Do you wake up at night with "pins and needles" sensations in your hands? I do! I've had these symptoms for over ten years, and when I first started getting them, my doctor told me it sounded like carpal tunnel syndrome, in which the median nerve becomes compressed when it goes through the carpal tunnel, on the underside of the wrist. I told her I did a lot of knitting, and usually slept on my side, with my wrists folded under my chin, so she prescribed wrist braces to keep my wrists straight, because flexing them causes the carpal tunnel to narrow.

Well, the wrist braces were awkward and annoying, so I didn't wear them for long, but I did start keeping my wrists straight as much as possible while knitting and while falling asleep. I had also been having some trouble with trigger points in my neck and upper back, which sometimes caused pain and stiffness severe enough to keep me from turning my head, so I generally became more conscious of my posture and positioning, not just while knitting but also while using a computer, driving, and reading.

My neck and upper back issues improved, but the tingling and numbness in my fingers persisted. it was especially bad when I had a tight deadline for a magazine pattern, and had to knit for hours a day. And then a few years ago I started playing the mandolin, which requires a lot of flexing of the left wrist. The tingling and numbness started to get worse; I would have to stop frequently and shake out my hand while knitting or practicing, and when I woke up at night, the pins and needles were painful, and sometimes kept me from falling back to sleep. 

At some point I discovered the book "Knitting Comfortably" by Carson Demers, which is a great resource regarding proper ergonomics while knitting. But I had already corrected most of the postural issues he covers.

Then I discovered Paul Ingraham's website, PainScience.com, which is devoted to discussion of treatment options of various stubborn aches, pains and injuries, and read in one of his posts that trigger points in my forearms might actually be causing many of the symptoms that I was attributing to carpal tunnel syndrome. This post on repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) is quite lengthy, but this paragraph jumped out at me:

And then I found his post on massage therapy for tennis elbow and wrist pain (forgot to mention that I also started playing tennis about five years ago, and had started to develop a bit of tennis elbow). I found some very painful knots in my forearms and massaged them as he suggested, and believe it or not, that same night, for the first time in weeks, I slept without being woken up by those pesky pins and needles!! I experimented with different techniques, and found that fingers, massage balls, a lacrosse ball, and finally, my elbow, were all effective (see video). But I did find that the symptoms would return unless I massaged these trigger points every other day or so.

And then something totally unexpected happened: a few months ago, to see if I could improve my blood cholesterol profile, I started the keto diet (which severely restricts carbohydrates), and within a few days, even though I continued to knit and practice mandolin as usual, my carpal-tunnel-like symptoms were almost completely gone! Was it due to the state of being in ketosis, or something else? I wasn't sure. But after about six weeks, and no change in my cholesterol, I decided the keto diet wasn't for me, so I went back to my previous eating habits, and the symptoms returned. I did some experimenting and soon realized that if I avoided eating wheat for a couple of days, the numbness and tingling in my fingers lessened. Could I be sensitive to gluten? I had never had any digestive issues from eating bread or pasta. But upon Googling, I found numerous links referring to "gluten neuropathy." It appears that sensitivity to gluten can cause nerve inflammation and damage, or neuropathy, without causing indigestion.

I have mixed feelings about this discovery, as I do love pasta and pizza and beer. Could I continue to massage my trigger points, and still eat (and drink) as I please? Maybe, but it does seem to make more sense to remove the cause of inflammation, rather than try to treat it after it happens. And I do love lots of other foods too, and I love my knitting and my mando and my tennis, so given the choice between gluten and less nerve pain-- I think I'll take the latter.

 

One-row buttonhole photo tutorial

This photo tutorial is part of my Gibson Cardigan free pattern on knitty.com, but I thought I would also put it on my website, because I really like this technique. It creates a neat, sturdy buttonhole and is completed within one row, rather then working the bind-off part of the buttonhole on one row, and the cast-on part on the buttonhole on the next row (the two-row buttonhole). 

I used the same buttonhole technique for a new cardigan design, which will soon be available on WEBS*. So I also created a video tutorial for the one-row buttonhole-- check it out if you prefer video to photo tutorials.

NOTE: These instructions are for a three-stitch buttonhole. Mark the center stitch of the buttonhole with a removable marker, then proceed as directed below.

One-row buttonhole: *Knit to 1 st before marked st, bring yarn to front, and sl next st purlwise. Bring yarn to back and leave it there [photo 1]. (Sl next st purlwise from left-hand needle and pass first slipped st over it) three times [photo 2], then sl single slipped st remaining on right-hand needle back to left-hand needle. Turn work to WS and use yarn at back to CO 4 sts using Sturdy Cast-On [photos 3-5, also see Pattern Notes]. Turn work back to RS [photo 6], sl first st purlwise from left-hand needle to right-hand needle [photo 7], and pass last CO st over it to close buttonhole [photo 8], then sl st back to left-hand needle and knit it; rep from * for second buttonhole, knit to end of row.

1. Knit to 1 st before marked st, bring yarn to front, and slip next st purlwise. Bring yarn to back and leave it there.

2. 3 sts have been BO. Next step: Slip single slipped st remaining on right-hand needle back to left-hand needle, then turn work to WS.

3. With WS facing and yarn in front, insert right-hand needle tip from back to front between first two stitches on left-hand needle. Tip will then be used to draw loop of yarn from front to back to create new st.

4. 1 st has already been CO and placed on left-hand needle; to make next st, insert right-hand needle tip from back to front behind both legs of first st, in front of previous st.

5. Loop of yarn has been drawn through from front to back to create new st.

6. 4 sts have been CO and work turned back to RS.

7. First st from left-hand needle has been slipped purlwise to right-hand needle.

8. Last CO st has been passed over slipped st to close buttonhole. Next step: Place slipped st back on left-hand needle and knit it, then proceed with remainder of row.

*Speaking of WEBS, they have recently published two of my designs in their Designer Series; each can be purchased as an individual pattern or as part of a kit, with the yarn. The Lyndhurst sleeveless tank uses Valley Yarns Granville (90% cotton, 10% merino wool), and the Annatto cardigan uses Valley Superwash DK (100% extra-fine merino wool). 

Errata for Wrought Iron Tote

In 2014, shortly after my Wrought Iron Tote pattern was published in Knitting Architecture, Tanis Gray's collection of architecture-inspired designs, I realized that I had omitted the instructions for the contrasting strap edging (an attached I-cord). So I emailed Tanis, and she forwarded my email with the missing instructions to Interweave, to be added to the Interweave website book errata page. (If you scroll down the page to "Knitting Architecture" and click on the link, that will download a zip file that contains the book errata; the file with the Wrought Iron Tote errata is titled "KA_p46-47_web.pdf." Or just click on the link at the bottom of this post.)

I just realized this, because yesterday I got an email from a knitter, saying that the instructions for the strap edging in the pattern photos seemed to be missing from the book pattern. So I found my five-year-old email to Tanis and her response, and then went to the Interweave website. I got excited when I saw the errata file, because it appeared that the book PDF had actually been corrected, and I thought that maybe, if you now purchased the e-book, you would receive the corrected version. How cool would that be! 

Unfortunately the book is no longer available from Interweave; which now has only 32 of their many knitting book titles available on their website. Amazon and Barnes & Noble had both the paperback and the e-version (Kindle and Nook, respectively). After some consideration (and looking at the free sample, hoping it would include the Wrought Iron Tote pages), I decided satisfying my curiosity was worth $10.99, so I purchased the Kindle version. Sadly the corrections WERE NOT THERE. Oh well.

Anyway, click on the link below for the corrected pattern pages.

Download Wrought Iron Tote corrections

Haddonfield Tank

 

The cable/lace panels that accent the Haddonfield Tank from Knitted Tanks and Tunics have to be among my favorite stitch patterns ever. I found one of them in a Japanese stitch dictionary, and fell in love with its movement and texture. They are also fun and interesting to work, although definitely not for beginners, especially if worked flat, since there are lace stitches on every row.

Before Haddonfield, I used it in my Motif Mittens, designed for Tanis Gray's book Wanderlust: 46 Modern Knits for Bohemian Style (another one of my designs, the Cabled Capelet, is on the cover!). For these mittens, I created the mirror image version of the panel, so the mittens would mirror each other.

Well, the Motif Mittens only left me wanting to use that lovely cabled lace in another design! For Haddonfield, I decide to use decreases and increases to curve the panels, accentuating body curves as well as the curving flow of the stitch pattern. This tank also has waist shaping, which combined with the decreases and increases that move the panels, makes it a solid intermediate in difficulty. Since Haddonfield is worked in the round to the armholes, at least the cables are worked for the most part from the right side! (From the armholes to the neck, they are worked flat.) Since the fit and length are pretty classic, I decided to go with traditional ribbed edgings; the hem edging is worked continuously with the body, while the neck and armhole edgings are added during finishing. 

The yarn I chose for this tank, Berroco Modern Cotton, is a blend of pima cotton and modal rayon, and for a cotton blend yarn, it is quite soft and pleasant to work with. It has a nice sheen, moderate drape, great stitch definition, and wears well-- and comes in lots of colors, from neutral to bright to saturated! I would happily use it again.

 

 

Sedalia Tank

The Sedalia* Tank from Knitted Tanks and Tunics has lots of knitterly details that I really enjoyed incorporating into the design (but they do make this project a better choice for an experienced than a novice knitter). The simple lace columns on the body are carried into a floral lace motif on the upper front and back, and the waist is shaped with side decreases. All edges are self-finished, and the lace pattern creates an attractive wavy edge along the armholes.

I decided to add gussets under the arms (see above photo) because I wanted to shape the armholes with just decreases, and not bind off any stitches, since the transition from bound off stitches to the armhole sides would have been hard to finish nicely without adding an edging. But without the bound off stitches, I thought the armholes would be too deep, since the underarm stitches would have to be removed more gradually by decreases. And that's where the gussets came in: they fill in the area between the initial armhole shaping decreases, keeping the armhole from being too deep.

Another knitterly detail: the shallow scooped necklines, slightly deeper on the front than the back. (Sedalia can also be worn backwards if you like the deeper neckline in the back-- or even worked with the front and back identical, using either the deeper or the shallower neckline.) I shaped the necklines using short rows, and also used short rows to shape the shoulders. 

I thought the crisp stitch definition of Classic Elite Yarns Provence would be a great match for this design; it also has a pretty sheen from the mercerized Egyptian cotton, wears really well, and comes in many lovely shades. I used it for one of my earliest designs, the Wisteria child's sleeveless dress, and have been fond of it ever since. Alas, I found out recently that Classic Elite Yarns is closing its doors! This was very sad news for me-- CEY has been one of my go-to yarn companies, and I used two of their other yarns, Firefly and  Sanibel, for the Yuma and Odessa tunics in Knitted Tanks and Tunics.

I will miss you, CEY!

And I suggest that if you are thinking of making Sedalia, and want to use Provence yarn, you purchase some sooner rather than later. If looking for a substitute yarn, I have found yarnsub.com to be valuable resource.

All photos except 2nd-- copyright Tom Moore Studios!

(By the way, Sedalia was previously published as an individual pattern, the Madaket Tank, and is still available as an individual PDF download).

*Named after Sedalia, MO: Another town that I would love to visit someday.

 

Galena Tank

The focal point of the Galena Tank is the unusual lace yoke, which is worked sideways, not in the round. I found the original stitch pattern of lace circles in Barbara Walker's Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns awhile ago, and after swatching, made some changes to the stitch pattern so that the circle outlines stand out more clearly. I also placed them on a background of garter stitch. 

I was thinking of combining this stitch pattern with a lace border in a garter-based shawl, but never got around to completing the design. Then I got the idea of working a single column of the lace circles, adding short rows to shape the column into a curve, and turning the resulting curved strip into a yoke. I decided to keep the rest of the top simple, and found a very special yarn, Quince & Co.'s Willet, that shows off the textured stitches of the yoke AND works into a light, smooth fabric for the body. It's made of a responsibly sourced cotton that is grown, spun and dyed in the USA. 

The other unusual feature of the yoke, besides the lace stitch, is the duplicate stitch method that I used to graft the ends. When using this method for a circular item such as a yoke (or a cowl), you cast on in a contrast color waste yarn, work a couple of rows, then join the main yarn and work to one row before the end. You then cut the main yarn leaving a long tail for grafting (very important!), join the contrast color yarn, work a couple of rows, and bind off. Next, you thread a tapestry needle with the long yarn tail and with the contrast color rows as a guide, use duplicate stitch to graft the ends of the yoke together. Sound complicated? This is a case where a picture (or better yet, a video) is indeed worth a thousand words. 

If you knit a lot of socks, you are probably pretty comfortable with using Kitchener stitch for simple stockinette, but the duplicate stitch method is a wonderful way to graft lace or other stitch patterns, because there are no complicated grafting charts to read! And since there are no live stitches hanging loose, there is no fear of dropping stitches, AND you can readjust the tension of your grafted stitches as much as you like, or pull the graft stitches out and redo them if you make a mistake. Once you are happy with the graft row, you carefully cut away the waste yarn stitches. 

After finishing Galena's yoke, stitches are picked up from the bottom edge and worked down for the body. There are some short rows to shape the top of the front and back to the curve of the yoke, but after that, the rest of the body is pretty simple. After you reach the bottom of the armholes, it's worked in the round; some waist shaping and a simple rolled hem, and you're done.

By the way, this tank was not named after the mineral, but after the town of Galena in Illinois (I hear it's quite nice!).

(All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

Prickly Pear

(photo: Crissy Jarvis)

The Prickly Pear sleeveless tank pattern is now available at Twist Collective! It's a great quick knit for warm weather, and can be worn on its own or layered over another top. The hem hits just above the hips, but since there is no waist shaping, it is easy to change the length. The stitch gauge of the lace is smaller than the stockinette stitch gauge (fewer stitches per inch), which means that for most sizes, the bottom edge of the top is 3-4 inches bigger in circumference than the bust. According to the Craft Yarn Council Woman Size Charts, this means that Prickly Pear can be lengthened to hip length, and the hem will still be wide enough to clear the hips with well over 2 inches/5 cm of positive ease in every size except XS (1/4-1"/.5-2.5 cm positive ease).

(photo: Crissy Jarvis)

The yarn chosen for this project, Classic Elite Hanako, is a blend of cotton and linen that works wonderfully: it has great stitch definition, showing off the lace nicely, and has some drape but also some body, so that it doesn't cling. It should also get softer with wear.

The lace pattern is an adaptation of the "Candle of Glory" stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. For maximum impact as a border, I made each "candle" bigger, and set them in a single row instead of staggering them. The construction of each lace motif is interesting: on one row, eight stitches are increased in a single stitch, and then on every right-side row after that, two stitches are decreased, until the original number of stitches is restored. Theoretically, the size of each motif is limited only by the number of stitches you can squeeze into a single stitch on the increase row!

(photo: Crissy Jarvis)

The other main feature of this top is the scooped neckline. I decided to make one side a shallower scoop than the other, so you can wear the deeper scoop in the front or in the back, which adds a little versatility. The shoulders are shaped with short rows and the shoulder straps are wide enough for bra coverage. 

(Surprising how different the color of the yarn looks in my photo; the true color is somewhere in-between the bright yellow-green of the first three photos and the pea green of the fourth.)

But even if the shoulder straps of a tank are wide enough to cover bra straps, that doesn't guarantee that the bra straps will stay covered! I have a few tops that came with bra strap holders on the inside of the shoulders, which I think is a great idea. They are simply snaps where one side is sewn to the inside of the garment, and the other is attached to a short cord or tape, so that it can be closed over a bra strap, holding it in place.

Sometimes I use a small safety pin as a DIY strap holder: I pass it through the inside of the shoulder seam, making sure that it doesn't show on the right side, and then close it so that it encloses but doesn't pierce my bra strap. It actually works well enough that I just leave the safety pins in place on a couple of my tops, but the bra strap does tend to catch on the safety pin closure, so I'm thinking I should sit down one afternoon, and just make bra strap holders for a few of my favorite knitted sleeveless tops. 

Marietta Tank

I wore the Marietta Tank for the author photo on the back cover of Knitted Tanks and Tunics. It is one of my favorite designs in the book, but I decided to wear it (and not one of the other designs) for two reasons: because it fits me well, and because the color is very flattering.

I'm not tall, and I had to make the samples for the book patterns in a size that would fit a model (not me), so many of the book garments are a little long in the waist for my body. The Marietta Tank is slightly cropped, so the narrowest part of the waist hits me just right-- at my natural waist. That is an important consideration for the best fit whenever a knitted garment has waist shaping. In fact, I included a section in the book called "Making Sure Your Knits Fit," which includes how to change the position of waist shaping if necessary. Generally, a top will be most flattering if the narrowest part of the waist shaping falls at or slightly above the natural waist.

I'm also fond of this design because I find twisted stitch patterns both pretty and fun to knit (especially once you learn how to work the twists without a cable needle!). I love the elegant little twisted rib cable that runs from the hem up the center front and back, and then splits to frame the twisted stitch panel on the front. I enjoyed designing that panel, but It was a challenge to grade all of the sizes so that the panel starts at the right place for each one.

You can also wear Marietta with the panel in the back, and the V-neck in the front, which is another plus for this design. 

And finally, the yarn I used, Rowan Softyak DK, is an unusual and lovely yarn, produced in heathered shades, and constructed of mostly cotton with a bit of yak and nylon. The yak and nylon help it hold its shape, while its chained construction gives the finished fabric a nice drape, and makes it resistant to splitting while it is being worked. 

(all photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

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Astoria Tunic

I'm glad that the Astoria Tunic graces the cover of Knitted Tanks and Tunics; I really like the fun retro feel of the high rounded collar and the center front pleat, and I also think that the A-line shape and tunic length make this a style that is flattering to many body types.

The body is very simple: it's worked in the round, and has regular decreases along the sides to give it that A-line shape. The armhole edgings are worked at the same time as the body, so no additional finishing is required. Once the upper front is reached, things get a bit (but only a bit!) more complicated: while working the upper front, purl columns are started, to allow the back part of the pleat to fold neatly, and a few short rows are worked to shape the upper edge into a curve. The inverted box pleat is formed by folding the fabric toward the center front along the purl columns, and then back toward the sides. 

The layers of fabric have to be attached to each other to hold the pleat in place; I experimented with several techniques to find the best way to do this without creating a lot of bulk at the top of the pleat. 

For the collar, stitches are cast on between the top edges of the front and back, and then worked in the round. The collar is then folded in half to create a double layer, which helps it stand away from the neck.

I used Schachenmayr Catania Grande yarn for Astoria; it's 100% mercerized cotton and worsted (#4 medium) weight, but I used larger needles to create a less dense fabric with more drape. This yarn comes in a wide range of colors, from neutrals to pastels to brights, and the mercerization gives the cotton a nice sheen and excellent stitch definition. 

(all photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

Bethel Tank

The Bethel Tank is one of the three projects in Knitted Tanks and Tunics that uses more than one color of yarn (the others are the Roanoke Tank and the Beverly Tank)-- but the only one that uses the stranded or Fair Isle technique. In this technique, many colors may be used, but traditionally only two colors are used in any one row or round.

For stranded designs, the color choices are all-important: when combining yarn colors, a particular color displays very differently depending on the adjacent hues. Traditionally, Fair Isle knitters use a fingering (#1 super fine), Shetland wool yarn such as Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift, which comes in over 200 colors! The Brown Sheep Company makes a similar yarn, Nature Spun, from U.S. sourced and spun wool, which comes in over 80 colors, but since Bethel is primarily a warm-weather garment, I decided to use Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece yarn for this project. Cotton Fleece is 80% cotton and 20% merino wool AND it comes in over 60 colors. It's also a borderline DK/worsted (#3 light/#4 medium) weight, so it knits up much faster than a fingering weight yarn. And finally, I was already familiar with Cotton Fleece, having used it for the Sherwood child's pullover, one of my first published designs, back in 2006.

I used Brown Sheep color cards to choose the yarn colors, found a few suitable stranded motifs in Alice Starmore's Charts for Color Knitting (highly recommended!), and then I did a lot of swatching, arranging the colors in different ways. I ended up with two favorite motifs, and I went with the one that I thought would have more of the effect of a necklace in the finished design.

Bethel's stranded yoke is worked in the round from the bottom up, and then stitches are picked up from the lower (cast-on) edge and worked down for the body. I used short rows to shape the top of the front and back along the edge of the yoke, so that it keeps its natural round shape. One of the advantages of working top-down is that the top can be tried on while work is in progress, to check the placement of waist shaping as well as the finished length. The hem, neck and armholes of Bethel are all finished with an attached I-cord, which creates a simple, clean edge.

One word of caution: The darker colors of Cotton Fleece can bleed if washed in warm or hot water, so take care to use cold water when washing!

(all photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

*I used the runner-up stranded motif for the Zinnia Tank, also worked in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece.

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Roanoke Tank

The Roanoke Tank, another design from Knitted Tanks and Tunics, is unique in its design and construction, but also showcases a very special yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns' Drama. Drama is 100% linen, sport weight, machine washable AND dryable (more on that later), and it also comes in some absolutely stunning colorways, from subtly to boldly variegated. For Roanoke, I chose one of each type of colorway: the body of the tank is worked in Silver Shimmer (subtle shades of white), while the front and back panels are worked in Collards and Grits (love that name!), a gorgeous combination of blues, greens, neutrals and white. 

I have to admit that the yarn did not inspire the design. I had been playing with the idea of building a garment around an upper front medallion of some sort, decided it would be a nice way to showcase a variegated yarn, then decided to use a more subtly colored yarn for the body, and went looking for a yarn that had those colorway options. I also wanted the body to be light and flowy, so that narrowed my choices, and then I found the perfect yarn! 

The front and back diamond panels are worked first, and then stitches are picked up from the lower two sides for the body, and from the upper two sides for the straps. I used a smaller needle size for the diamond panels, to keep the garter stitch fabric from getting loose and sloppy, while for the body I used larger needles, to create that light and airy feel. I made several different sizes of diamonds, trying to find the largest size that would work for the design: If it was too large, then the upper point of the diamond would extend up into the neck area, and the body wouldn't start high enough to be extended around the sides, but if it was too small, it wouldn't look right.

Like with the Bellingham Tank, I used Ofelia, my mannequin, to help me figure out some construction details. I used some strips of a lightweight knit T-shirt for the straps, to fine-tune the placement of the diamonds on the front and back (see above photo-- in fact I still like the look of the fabric so much, I'm wondering if this could be turned into a mixed media top....). I was happy to realize that I could fit a larger diamond on the back, but when I started to work on grading the pattern for different sizes, I unhappily came to the conclusion that I couldn't make the design work for bust sizes larger than around 45" (114 cm). The body stitches come from a combination of stitches picked up from the diamonds' edges, increases, and stitches cast on for the underarms, and I just wasn't confident that the sides of the tank would stay up high enough in sizes larger than 45". 

If you haven't worked with 100% linen yarn before, I'll be frank: it's not pleasant. It doesn't stretch and it feels rough. But the finished fabric is lovely-- with time and wear it gets much softer-- especially if it's machine washed and dried. So for this pattern, the gauge actually specifies to do just that!

(1st, 2nd and 4th photos, copyright Tom Moore Studios)

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Yuma Tunic - Knititude

Sayre Tank

The Sayre Tank came about because I was trying to create a design that used a minimal amount of yarn-- hence the lace panels at the top of the front and back, the close fit, and the slightly cropped length. (All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios.)

It is also one of three designs in Knitted Tanks and Tunics that I previously published. (I was contractually allowed by Stackpole Books, the publisher, to include five previously published designs.) The blog post I wrote about the original version of Sayre, the Katama Tank, has a lot of information about the design process, which I won't repeat here. 

But I do want to add some information about the yarn I used, Valley Yarns Southwick. The Valley Yarns line is exclusive to WEBS, one of my favorite yarn stores, in Northampton, MA. Southwick is a blend of pima cotton and bamboo, and straddles the line between DK and worsted weight. For the Sayre Tank, I used US 7/4.5 mm needles, at the larger end of the recommended needle size range, to get increased drape in the stockinette sections, and a more open fabric in the lace sections. This yarn has a soft hand and a pretty sheen from the bamboo, but it also has good stitch definition and wears well. (In fact, I liked the yarn so much that I used it for a pullover I designed for interweave Knits Spring 2015, the Honey Pullover.)

 

Bellingham Tank

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

The process I used to design the Bellingham Tank was very unusual for me! But then it's also quite different from the other designs in Knitted Tanks and Tunics: I love to use cabled, lace and textured stitch patterns, and I prefer to work in the round, but Bellingham is worked only in stockinette stitch, and it's worked flat.

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

For Bellingham, I knew I wanted to end up with a top that wrapped around both sides and then narrowed into pieces (I thought of them as wings) that crossed to the opposite shoulder. I was hoping to end up with a top that could be worn with the crossed pieces on the front as well as the back (more on that later). So the first step was to come up with knit-able shapes for all of the pieces, or even better, a single knit-able piece (I think I had a vague mental picture of something that resembled the Bat-Signal).

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

To do this I enlisted the aid of Ofelia, my mannequin. Instead of muslin I used old T-shirts, to better approximate the weight and drape of knitted fabric; I cut them into large pieces, draped, overlapped, and pinned them on Ofelia. I trimmed the edges away until what remained was close to what I wanted for the final top. Then I unwrapped everything and laid it flat on the floor, ending up with a single large piece with a wide, curved bottom edge and two curved wings; the spaces between the center and wings would form the armholes.

But when I tried to figure out how to knit this shape in one piece, I quickly decided that not only would it require complicated shaping with decreases and short rows, but it would also be very difficult to grade and size accurately. After measuring various parts, I decided that the center section could be worked as one piece, with the lower part worked in several identical wedges and the upper part shaped with additional decreases, while the side sections could be worked separately. Instead of seaming these pieces together, I opted to pick up the stitches for each side section from the side edges of the center section, leaving the only seaming at the shoulders. This also allowed for some customization of fit, since the side pieces can be easily shortened or lengthened.

photo copyright Tom Moore Studios

I was delighted to find that the yarn I had chosen, Fibra Natura Good Earth from Universal Yarn, was the perfect match for this design. It's a worsted-weight cotton-linen blend, and I worked it on slightly larger needles than suggested, so the fabric has a nice drape, with enough weight to give the flared bottom edge of the top a little swing. It also comes in a pretty range of colors,has a lovely subtle sheen, and is rather inexpensive (and it's machine washable!).

As for being able to wear Bellingham with the crossed pieces in front? I'm not sure I succeeded in pulling that off. I think the issue was making the armholes deep enough so that the side pieces could be pulled across to the opposite side without pulling too tight under the arms-- this created enough wiggle room that the top doesn't necessarily stay put in one position on the body, perhaps leading to too much exposure here or there (definitely less of an issue with the crossed pieces in the back). So I was able to arrange the finished tank on Giulia such that the front coverage was skimpy but adequate (see above photo), but if Giulia were walking around in a windstorm, there would certainly be potential for a wardrobe malfunction! In conclusion, I would say, try it on that way, but whether it can realistically worn with the crossed pieces in front will depend on individual fit. 

 

Yuma Tunic

The Yuma Tunic may seem impractical-- one-shouldered?? All lace?? Balancing a baby on one hip while wearing Yuma may not be for everyone.... On the other hand, it's simpler than you might think to knit, it's quite flattering, and you can use it as a layering piece, over a tank or a t-shirt.

This tunic is quite simple in construction: it's really an angled tube, with one side of the tube separated into front and back and shaped for the armhole, and then joined at the top for the shoulder. The diagonal hem and neckline are created by the natural biasing of the lace pattern. After I noticed this biasing while making a swatch, I tried another swatch, changing the direction of the decreases and yarnovers, and when the fabric slanted in the other direction, I got the idea of using the two mirror image lace patterns to create the front and back of a top.

I found a really special yarn for Yuma: Classic Elite Yarns (CEY) Firefly, a DK-weight blend of linen and viscose. The linen has a slightly rough, dry texture, and some fine fibers which give the yarn a slight halo, almost as if it had mohair or angora in it (but it doesn't!), while the viscose adds drape and sheen. And the colors are stunning; I decided on Bronze, a rich dark gold, but it was hard to choose between Bronze, Hyacinth (a metallic gray-violet) and Mermaid (silvery teal). For this design, it's worked on larger needles than suggested on the ball band (US 7 instead of US 5) to create even more drape, creating a light and airy fabric.

I used CEY yarns for two other projects in Knitted Tanks and Tunics-- Provence for the Sedalia Tank and Sanibel for the Odessa Tunic-- but they are very different. Provence is a classic DK-weight plied cotton yarn, with a firm hand and great stitch definition, but not a lot of drape, while Sanibel is a very drapey, worsted weight tape yarn made of a blend of cotton and viscose. My blog post about the Odessa Tunic goes into more detail about Sanibel yarn, and I plan to post about the Sedalia Tank and Provence yarn soon.

(All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

Related articles

Odessa Tunic from Knitted Tanks and Tunics

Errata for Truro Hat

An alert knitter has informed me that there is an error in the Truro Hat crown decreases. For the version of the pattern purchased before today (March 31st, 2018), Decrease round 3 should be omitted, and Decrease round 4 should be the third and final decrease round. Patterns purchased
after 3/31/2018 have been corrected.

Greenville Tank

The Greenville Tank, one of the 21 designs in my new book Knitted Tanks and Tunics, has three unusual features, all of which combine to create a top with a very flattering fit. The first feature is the corded accent under the bust, which is created by binding off all of the body stitches, and then picking them up again, but from the wrong side, leaving the bound off edge visible on the right side of the fabric.

The second feature is the way the corded accent curves up at the sides; this was achieved by using short rows to shape the bust area, but also was a result of the natural shape of the side lace panels.

And the side lace panels are the third unusual feature, by virtue of their placement and also the effect that the lace pattern has on the tank's shaping. Like most lace knitting, the pattern combines increases (yarnovers) and decreases to create decorative holes while keeping the stitch count the same; in this pattern, the increases are clustered near the center, and the decreases all occur at the outer edges, which causes the rows to appear to angle outward from the panel center. This also creates parallel curves at the bottom and top of the panel; the bottom curve shapes the hem into two shallow points over the hipbones (best shown in the above photo).

The lace pattern looks to me like sprays of flowers...and also like fern fronds, which is why I named an earlier version of this design the Fern Fitted Shell. The contract for this book stipulated that I could include up to five previously published patterns, and I decided to include three (Fern, the Katama/Sayre Tank, and the Madaket/Sedalia Tank). In the case of the other two, I made no significant changes to the design.

But in the case of Fern, I had never liked the way the top curve caused by lace pattern created some loose fabric at the top of the panel (see above photo), so for Greenville, I experimented with ways to fix this, and found that adding short row shaping did the trick.

I also chose a different yarn for Greenville: Cascade Yarns Avalon, a 50/50 blend of cotton and acrylic. It's cable-plied, which gives it a bit of surface texture and makes it wonderfully resistant to splitting. It's machine washable (and dryable, but for the lace in Greenville to look good, it has be to be blocked and dried flat). It's not as heavy as 100% cotton yarn would be, and keeps its shape better. And it comes in a wide range of colors; I love a nice off-white, but if I made myself another Greenville, I would probably choose Dark Denim (a steely gray-blue) or Fawn (greige).

(First three photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

Sheridan Tank

The Sheridan Tank is another design from my new book, Knitted Tanks and Tunics. It's worked in Cascade Yarns Anchor Bay, a blend of 50% cotton and 50% superwash merino wool. It features an unusual cabled pattern on the front and back. The stitch pattern is called "Snails," and I found it in the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Vol. 2: Cables. If I hadn't decided to name all of the patterns in the book after towns, I would certainly have called this one "Escargot"...or maybe "Lumache" (Italian for "snails," and also for snail-shaped pasta).

The cabled panels on front and back flow into and around the deep scooped neck, which is shaped with short rows. The cable pattern itself is not complicated; it's a very common four-over-four stitch cable cross (it's the placement of the background knit and purl columns that gives its unusual appearance). But the short row neck shaping works around the cable crosses, and a chart is used to show both the short rows and the cable pattern, so Sheridan is definitely geared toward the intermediate knitter. In my opinion, a chart is actually a great way to see the placement of the short row wrap-and-turns, but it does take a little getting used to, if you've never used that type of chart before.

Sheridan has side waist shaping and was designed to flatter, whether worn alone or over another layer; the vertical lines of the cabled panel and the plain stockinette stitch sides have a slimming effect, while the rounded neckline looks good on many body types. Instructions are given for changing the body length; there is also a section in the book about adjusting the placement of waist shaping to fit your body (an important consideration to get the best fit). 

This was one of the first projects I completed for the book, and a few months after I had finished the sample, I found out that the yarn I had chosen was going to be discontinued before the book came out. So I quickly picked out another yarn and made ANOTHER sample. Luckily the Anchor Bay turned out to be a perfect choice; the cotton/wool blend is very pleasant to work with, comfortable to wear, holds its shape well, and also has great stitch definition. AND it comes in 32 colors!

For a chance to win a free copy of Knitted Tanks and Tunics AND the yarn for either the Sheridan Tank (Cascade Yarns Anchor Bay) or the Greenville Tank (Cascade Yarns Avalon), head on over the the Cascade Yarns Facebook page on April 9th! 

Odessa Tunic from Knitted Tanks and Tunics

Classic Elite Yarns (CEY) is one of my favorite yarn companies; over the years I've used their yarns in many of my designs, including the Anjou sleeveless top (Provence), the Dayflower Camisole (Premiere), the Wisteria Child's Dress (Provence), and the Lutea Shell (Sundance). The Lutea shell was the first design I published in Interweave Knits, back in Summer 2007, and at the time Pam Allen was the editor there-- but she left shortly afterward to become creative director at CEY (and has since moved on to Quince & Co.).

I used CEY yarns for three of the designs in Knitted Tanks and Tunics: the Odessa Tunic, the Sedalia Tank, and the Yuma Tunic. They are all quite different (as are the three yarns I used). 

The Odessa Tunic, in Sanibel yarn, is worked flat and sideways, in four pieces, and then seamed at the sides and the center front and back. All pieces are worked from the center out, with increases shaping the neck, and short rows shaping the armholes, so I decided not to complicate matters by adding any waist shaping, and used a twisted cord tie at the waist instead.

My favorite feature of this tunic is the subtle contrast between the plain knit body and the lace "skirt," and this was really inspired by the yarn. I spotted the yarn in a yarn store four or five years ago, in the same color (Maize) I ended using in this tunic, and was intrigued by the subdued variegation, the ribbon construction, and by the unusual mix of matte and shiny (it's composed of cotton and rayon/viscose). When I started swatching with it, I was struck by two things: its beautiful drape, and how different the variations in color and texture showed up in stockinette compared to lace. So I knew I wanted to put lace and stockinette together in this design, and then it just became a matter of finding the right lace pattern. 

I also love how versatile this tunic is. It can be worn over jeans, like in the photos, or over a tank or slip dress or leggings, and the waist tie can be cinched in at the natural waist, or allowed to sit just above the hips, or left loose (or omitted!). 

And finally, it was a fun project-- the lace pattern is easy to memorize, the neck and armhole edges are self finished, and the body seams are simply whipstitched (when sewing the lace sections, the lace pattern makes it easy to line up the pieces, but in the stockinette stitch sections, you have to be a little careful to line up the columns of stitches on each piece). And the twisted tie belt is fun to make, but if you've never done one, be prepared for LOTS of twisting! Or you can use a hand mixer... (lots of videos on Youtube!).

(All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

 

Blog tour for Knitted Tanks and Tunics

Head over to Tanis Knits for the first stop on the blog tour for Knitted Tanks and Tunics; you can read her interview questions and check out some never-before-published photos of the book garments (all copyright Tom Moore Studios). AND she is giving away a copy of the book!

I started working with Tanis Gray in 2007, while she was still an editor at Vogue Knitting, and I've contributed designs to several of her books since then (Knitting Architecture, Cozy Knits and Wanderlust). She's a wonderful and prolific designer and author, and I'm so grateful that she agreed to review my book. Thanks Tanis!

Knitted Tanks and Tunics

Here we are, almost ten months since I posted about going to the photo shoot for Knitted Tanks and Tunics, my first book of knitting patterns, and the release date for the book is finally, almost, here! The book can already be pre-ordered on Amazon, but the actual release date is April 1st.

Yes, it has occurred to me to wonder about the significance of the release date also being April Fools' Day. I think it's unlikely that Stackpole Books and some prankster(s) have come up with an elaborate scheme to make me think that I'm publishing my first book, only to reveal on April 1st that it was all a hoax. On the other hand, I've been watching the TV series Mr. Robot, and just saw the movie Game Night (highly recommend!), so I suppose an elaborate scheme isn't impossible.

But honestly,I'm pretty sure there's no special meaning attached to an April Fools' Day release date, because the process to get the book to this point has certainly been real; even though I didn't blog at all for most of 2017, I certainly kept busy with book editing and other design work. And lately I've been busy with the other piece of book publishing: Publicity. (Not something that comes easily to me....)

So in fact, I have been trying to come up with a clever way way to link Book Release Day and April Fools' Day, just for publicity purposes. "Fall in love with Knitted Tanks and Tunics on April 1st"? Get it? "Why do fools fall in love...." Yeah, not great. Working on it....

In the meantime, I've also scheduled a few blog tour stops, a book signing/trunk show (and maybe more), a video podcast, and a couple of yarn giveaways-- in addition to chances to win a copy of the book. So stay tuned for a flurry of posts/events over the next couple of months!

(All photos copyright Tom Moore Studios)

Farnia Cardigan

The March 2018 issue of Twist Collective has gone live, and includes my Farnia Cardigan! This cardi features one of my most-loved textured stitch patterns, "Hearts of Oak" from Barbara Walker's Fourth Treasury of Knitting Patterns ("Farnia" is Italian for a particular species of oak). In fact I used it years ago for a fitted skirt design, the Selva Skirt.

The stitch pattern has a deeply sculpted surface, and direct light really picks out its edges and hollows (as in the second of the two swatches shown below). But it also has a lovely, more subtle effect in diffuse light; plus it creates a nice firm fabric, which I thought I could use to great effect in this cardigan, with its hip length and subtly peplum-y border. (I find that around the waistline, I prefer a fabric that's not too clingy or drapey).

  

AND-- Hearts of Oak is a fun stitch pattern to work. It is a little labor intensive, which is why a wide border seemed to me just the right amount of it. When I got the top of the border, the stockinette stitch body seemed to be done in no time! I kept the rest of the cardi plain, to keep the focus on the hem-- just rolled edgings at the cuffs and neck (or it would be quite simple to substitute garter stitch or ribbed edgings). I also elected to use button loops rather than buttonholes, for increased flexibility with button number and placement.

I decided to use seamless set-in top down sleeves, which I also think are fun to work; I like to see the sleeve cap growing as the short rows progress around the edge of the armhole. I also think this type of sleeve gives a clean look to the shoulder and upper arm area, with no need to ease the cap into the armhole in a separate finishing step. 

Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK works wonderfully for this design; it has great stitch definition, is machine washable, and comes in a wide range of colors. And now that Twist Collective has partnered with WEBS, the yarn store, they've put together yarn+pattern kits in every size (there is a link on the pattern page for yarn kits, as well as for the pattern alone).  

(Modeled photos copyright Crissy Jarvis)

Savannah Pullover

My Savannah Pullover appears in the new Knitscene Spring 2018. It's worked in Berroco Elba, which happens to be the yarn I suggested (doesn't always work that way!), and which I absolutely love-- it's a cotton tape yarn, and the construction gives it a light, airy feel, quite different from a typical plied cotton yarn. The colors are also lovely-- shades range from pale to saturated, but all with a nice heathery finish.

I had been looking at lots of stitch dictionaries upside down, looking for stitch patterns that looked good when worked from the top down, and I found this floral-y one that I realized could also be increased, one horizontal repeat at a time, to form a triangular insert. Here is the swatch and sketch that I sent in with my design proposal:

As you can see I did not go to school for fashion sketching, although I do think the sketch conveys the essential features: wide scooped neck, raglan 3/4 length sleeves, cropped length, and lace detailing. And I was really smitten by the lace pattern (the idea was to to use the mirror image for the other side of the pullover).

Here is a photo of the lace detail from the finished pullover:

And here is a photo of the pullover on Ofelia, my mannequin-- just to make clear that it can be worn on both shoulders.

And now I have a confession to make. After years of designing, I've realized that when making calculations, it is generally best to start at the end and work backwards. For instance, for a bottom up yoked sweater, if you first figure out how many stitches you want in your neckband, taking into account your target finished circumference and any stitch multiples required (i.e. multiple of 4 for 2X2 rib), then you can easily calculate how many yoke decreases you'll need to get from the bottom of the yoke to the neck. AND, if you're trying to write a pattern for lots of sizes, you can juggle the numbers a bit to make the decreases work out evenly. And you can predict issues that might prevent the numbers from working out nicely....

Well, for this pullover, I got all the way to the bottom ribbing, and realized that, although I should have had an even number of stitches between the two lace panels, I had an odd number. This was actually a good thing, because the hem stitch pattern is a 1X1 rib, so it was better to have an odd number of stitches, allowing the front to be centered on a rib. Especially since the lace flows so nicely into the ribbing. I must have placed one of the side markers one stitch off-- oops!

I didn't have the time to reknit the entire pullover from the armholes, so I went ahead and finished it. But I realized that if I had placed the markers correctly, I would have had to decrease a stitch in the center front and back at the beginning of the ribbing, so the rib would be centered. Having to do a decrease was an inelegant solution (compared to just starting out with an odd number of stitches!) that I didn't want to pass on to other knitters, so when I wrote up the pattern, I wrote it so that all of the sizes have an odd number of stitches front and back, BEFORE starting the lace. I also added a note to the Knitscene editors explaining what had happened, because editors don't like having pattern instructions that don't match the sample (and rightly so!). But I felt that in this case, the difference in the sample was minor, and luckily for me, the editors agreed.

So if you are thinking that the lace panels seem to be skewed a bit, well the fact is that with a large gauge, even one stitch off can make a difference (and I think the model photos were styled to make a slight asymmetry appear purposeful). But fear not: if you make your own Savannah, the lace panels will be centered properly!

(First and fourth photos: copyright Interweave / Harper Point)

Now available: the Lisdoonvarna Scarf or Shawl pattern. I created this design for the May Classic box from Yarnbox.com, a monthly (or bimonthly) yarn club; you can purchase one of their yarn subscriptions and receive two skeins of carefully chosen, special yarns every one or two months, along with patterns created with those yarns in mind. Fun, right?! (and you can cancel subscriptions at any time). 

The featured worsted weight yarn for this month's Yarnbox Classic is Three Irish Girls Springvale Worsted, a wonderful superwash merino wool, very springy and soft. I received the Padraig colorway, which is a subtly variegated mix of greens, intense but not bright, dark-ish, but with lovely glints of emerald, moss and olive visible in bright light. 

So of course I had to go with the Irish theme and name this design after "The Road to Lisdoonvarna," a traditional Irish tune (and one of the first I learned on the mandolin). Here is a nontraditional (but very cool) version:

From the pattern introduction:

The leafy columns and lacy cables of Lisdoonvarna are worked from stem to leaf tips, in one direction, with the tapered ends shaped by increases and decreases. Lisdoonvarna is shown as a scarf, but can also be worked as a shawlette or shawl of any width, by repeating the increase and decrease sections as many times as desired.

For more pattern details, please see the pattern page in my Ravelry store, or on Loveknitting.com.

 

A few photos from my first photo shoot

Did you know that photographers might take THOUSANDS of photos in a single day's work? I knew they took a lot, but not that many! Anyway, Tom Moore emailed me a few of the photos he took during the day I was there "helping out" at the shoot for my upcoming book of knitting patterns. And I may be biased, but I think they're stunning! (Some of the locations are recognizable from photos in my last blog post.)

(In my last post I included a photo of Aleksandra huddled in her jacket between shots; the yellow tank below was what she was wearing under her jacket. Doesn't she make it seem like it was a warm summer afternoon?!)

My first photo shoot!

I'm going to put off the follow-up to last week's post (on making good yarn choices while learning new knitting techniques), because a couple of days ago I went to my first photo shoot! It was for my book of patterns for knitted sleeveless tanks and tunics, which is scheduled for publication by Stackpole Books in spring of 2018. It took place in the charming town of Beacon, NY, along the Hudson River.

The photographer, Tom Moore*, was very nice about letting me tag along, but due to scheduling issues, I missed the first day of the shoot. Luckily, his partner, Christine, was kind enough to text me some photos and videos of Tom at work, and also sent me a few proofs (stunning, aren't they??). 

Recognize the new and improved version of Fern, above? (My first thought when I saw this photo was "Get off the tracks, girl!" But I later found out that trains don't use this section of track anymore.)

Everything seemed to fit the model, Lexi, perfectly! I was very excited to head to Beacon for the second day of the shoot.

Here is one of my first views of the town, driving to our first location. It was a partially sunny day, but cool and windy.

Tom recruited me to help transport the samples, and we ended up staging the outfits out of my car; pictured are Christine, Tom's partner and stylist; Aleksandra, our model for the day; and Lois (in the baby carrier!). 

As you can see, Tom was willing to go to great lengths to get just the right angle! And I was glad that Tom told Aleks to hold onto that metal bar; she was rather close to the edge of the concrete slab in this shot.

Somehow Alexs managed to look like she was having a carefree stroll on a warm spring day; it's officially spring, yes, but I was wearing a sweater, down vest and scarf, and I was still cold!

She did put on her jacket and try to stay warm in between shots....

I hear that Campbell & Campbell Salon, in the background, is a great place to get your hair done....

But I can't vouch for Tony's rooms (as you can see, Beacon has a wide variety of settings and backgrounds).

Can't wait to post some proofs of the second day's work!

*Tom Moore Studios also did the photography for Sandi Rosner's book, 21 Crocheted Tanks and Tunics; when the Stackpole editor was trying to convince me that they understood the importance of great photos, she showed me some of his work for that book. 

Next-Level Knitting: Avoiding yarns that hinder your progress

When you're ready to try a new knitting skill, such as cables, or lace, or short rows, or [insert new skill here], did you know that your choice of yarn can make it easier...or harder? Here are some factors to consider when you're ready to move beyond simple garter or Stockinette stitch:

Make sure you can see your stitches easily! Beautiful as they may be, this is not the time to choose a thick-and-thin yarn (above: a display at Gather Here, in Cambridge, MA), a really fuzzy yarn like mohair (below: photo from Ewe & Me Yarns)), or a highly variegated yarn (3rd photo, also at Gather Here).

I also recommend avoiding a really dark yarn. The photos below are of two of my designs, the Corvina Pullover and the Honey Pullover. 

The lace stitch patterns are similar, but the stitches are much easier to see in the yellow versus the dark purple yarn (and the lighting of the purple yarn is deceptive; under normal lighting, it appears more the color of the shadowed shoulder). This effect can be mitigated by knitting in bright light, but if you tend to knit in a fairly dim room while watching TV, stay away from midnight blue yarn for your first lace project!

Make sure your yarn is easy to work with! Again, the mohair yarn is a poor choice for your first cabled project, because the fine fibers that create that lovely haloed effect will tend to get caught in your needles-- and will also make life miserable if you need to rip out any mistakes. 

What about that slippery silk yarn you fell in love with (above photo: Bergere de France Soie)? Sorry, but often that gorgeous sheen means the yarn is quite slippery, and not only will the stitches fall out immediately if you happen to drop one off your needle, but I've worked with some silk or bamboo yarns that are difficult to even wind into a ball without sliding into a tangled heap. Note that you should avoid slippery yarns, not all silk or bamboo yarns; some are textured, or blended with other fibers, and are very easy to work with.

Some yarns are also difficult to work with because they split easily. This becomes especially problematic if you are working cables or lace, because the stitches are pressed together on the needle while working a cable cross or while working several stitches together, increasing the chance that you will split a strand of yarn with your needle. Generally a tightly twisted yarn is less likely to split than a loosely twisted one; in the above photo, the twist in the yarns increases from left to right.

And finally, a word about very fine yarns (#0 lace or #1 super fine weight): Don't do it! Not for your first project using an intermediate knitting technique, anyway. These yarns not only violate principles #1 (it's relatively hard to see your stitches) and #2 (it's physically more difficult to manipulate such fine yarns, especially if the needles are very small), but using such lightweight yarns will make your knitting go VERY slowly, which can be frustrating and discouraging.

Next post: Next Level Knitting: Choosing a yarn that helps, not hinders

Cabled Sampler Cowl (and a class on cable knitting for novice knitters!)

 

By definition, a novice knitter has learned a limited number of knitting skills, which also limits the variety of suitable knitting projects. So it can be tricky to find patterns that help a novice knitter to learn new skills, yet are easy enough that knitting progress isn't frustratingly slow.

The Craft Yarn Council has published definitions of different levels of pattern difficulty, designed to help knitters choose projects that are appropriate for their skill level. According to the Craft Yarn Council's definitions, an Easy level knitting project uses basic stitches, repetitive stitch patterns, simple color changes, and simple shaping and finishing. Basic cables and lace, simple intarsia, knitting in the round, and mid-level shaping and finishing are all defined as Intermediate level skills, and short rows and more complicated lace, cable or fair isle stitch patterns are defined as skills that belong in Experienced-level patterns.

By these definitions, most of my patterns are either Intermediate or Experienced difficulty: they usually include a cable, lace or texture stitch pattern, they are often worked in the round, and they often include short rows.

While I think the CYC's definitions are very helpful, I feel that a simple lace or cable stitch pattern can fall under the "repetitive stitch pattern" classification. In addition, many simple cable or lace stitch patterns look much harder to work than they really are-- which is always a nice boost to the confidence of a novice knitter. I also feel that knitting in the round on a circular needle can be easier (and faster) in some ways than knitting flat: the right side (as opposed to the wrong side, not the left side) of your work is always facing you, which means that Stockinette stitch is worked by knitting every stitch, rather than alternating rows of knit and purl. It also makes it much easier to keep your place if working a texture, cable, lace or fair isle stitch pattern, and it decreases the amount of seaming required when finishing a project.

So while I've recently been trying to create more Easy level projects, I haven't avoided simple cable, lace, or texture stitch patterns, nor working in the round; to me, including these has the important advantage of making projects more fun to knit. 

Some of these Easy level designs will be coming out in a book of patterns that I recently completed; it isn't scheduled to be released until spring of 2018, but working on these got me thinking about how to hit that sweet spot of interesting enough/easy enough to keep knitters going! So when Skillshare.com approached me about doing a video knitting class on their website, I quickly decided that I wanted to teach classes that would help novice knitters learn new skills, thus expanding their project choices from Easy to Intermediate level patterns. And that is why I'm calling these classes "Next-Level Knitting."

My first class teaches cable knitting, using the Cabled Sampler Cowl* (photos) as the class project. I teach knitters how to do simple cable crosses, and also review a few other basic skills: the long-tail cast-on, working in the round, seed stitch, and binding off. Use this link to find out more; the first 25 users can also try the class for free!

*Last photo shows the "wrong side' of the cowl, which is also very attractive. Already know how to knit cables, or want to give this project a shot on your own? The Cabled Sampler Cowl pattern is also available as a free PDF download.

Happy Chinese New Year!

A few weeks ago I finally finished my Year of the Monkey design, the Shadow Monkey Hat-- just in time for the end of the year. Now that we've entered the Year of the Rooster, I've started thinking about what to create for this year's design. For me it will do double duty as a nod to my last name, Hahn, which means rooster in German.  

Although I've done several stranded designs in past years (Sheep, Horse and Rabbit), I try to mix it up a bit, doing lace one year (Year of the Dragon) and cables another (Year of the Snake), and I've tried not to simply translate a picture of the animal into knitting every time. For the Sheep/Goat/Ram project I did a fairly abstract representation of a ram's head, made into a border; for the Horse project I used the Chinese character for horse. For the Shadow Monkey Hat, I tried several different motifs before choosing the one I derived from the "Barrel of Monkeys" game, even though it didn't look like the monkeys usually depicted in artwork celebrating the Year of the Monkey. (Nor did I use the bright primary colors found in the game, preferring the slightly sinister effect of dark monkeys marching in rank...I suppose you could add wings if you really wanted to get scary.)

So I'm thinking about doing something more abstract for the Year of the Rooster; whenever I look at rooster photos, I find myself focusing on the gorgeous iridescent feathers. This led me to wonder whether there was an iridescent yarn, or a variegated yarn that imitated that effect, that I could use in my design. In just a few minutes of Googling, I found Tahki Tandem yarn (above), which is a blend of different fibers and has an iridescent sheen, and Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica Space Dyed (below), which is 100% worsted wool.

So now I'll have to think further about how I could incorporate an iridescent-effect yarn into a rooster-themed knitting pattern. Fun, fun!

(Top photo found here.)

 

Truro Hat

Now available on both Ravelry and Loveknitting: the Truro Hat pattern! Like the Wellfleet Hat, it uses an innovative new cable from Norah Gaughan's Knitted Cable Sourcebook, AND it looks great from the "wrong" side (see the 3rd and 4th photos), making it effectively reversible. Instead of a pompom, I decided to add a fun tassel to the crown of this hat. 

The yarn I used, Cascade Yarns Boliviana Bulky, is a Super Bulky weight yarn, with label gauge of 2 to 2 1/2 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch, and recommended needle sizes are US 13 (9 mm) to US 17 (12 mm)! So if you are looking for something you can work up in an evening or two, the Truro Hat would be a great choice. You cast on only 68 stitches for the adult size, so I had to find a relatively small cable stitch pattern. Even though it's a smaller repeat than the cable I used in the Wellfleet Hat, it's a bit tricker to work, because you have to move the cable needle from front to back (or vice versa) in the middle of working the cable cross. 

The circular needle length I recommend for hats is 20 inches (50 cm), which I've recently realized is quite hard to find (thank you Paradise Fibers for carrying them!). Most knitting stores jump from 16-inch to 24-inch-long needles, but 24 inches is really too long to do most hats, and I find the needles on the 16-inch-long ones awkward to use because they're so short.

As a bonus I've included detailed instructions on how to do a felted join (otherwise known as "spit-splicing"). If you are using a non-superwash wool or other animal-origin yarn, this is a great way to invisibly join new balls of yarn, and decrease the number of ends you have to weave in when you're done.

I really love the way the three-dimensionality of a simple cable is enhanced in such a thick yarn. The "right" side of the fabric reminds me of snow-covered tree branches.

 

The towns of Truro* and North Truro are right next to Wellfleet, on Cape Cod; if you visit, be sure to see the Highland Light. It's the oldest lighthouse on Cape Cod, is still in active use, and was moved 450 feet west in 1996 to keep it beach erosion from causing it to fall into the ocean! (Photo below: John Burk)

*I was informed by a knitter who saw this pattern on Ravelry that there is also a Truro in Nova Scotia (and she lives there).

Wellfleet Hat

The Wellfleet Hat pattern is now available, both on Ravelry and on Loveknitting! I also call it the Wellfleet Reversible Hat, because the "wrong" side (below) is almost as nice as the "right" side (above)-- in fact, some may prefer it. 

This design is one of a pair* that I decided to work up almost the moment I opened Norah Gaughan's new Knitted Cable Sourcebook. Norah is a master cable knitter and creator, and this book contains so many new, unusual and wonderful cables...luckily, I also decided that I wanted to design a couple of hats that work up quickly in bulky (3-3.75 stitches per inch) or super bulky (1.75-2.75 stitches per inch) yarn. This helped me limit my cable choices to a few of the more small and simple ones-- cables that would fit on a hat if worked in a heavy yarn.

The cable I chose for this hat is simple enough that I didn't even include a chart in the pattern! And I love charts for how they give a visual representation of knitted fabric, simplify directions for complex stitch patterns, and allow the knitter to see the progression of pattern rows...but in this case a chart just wasn't needed. The cable looks more complex than it really is, a function of the ingenious and elegant cable cross, which crosses one four-stitch group of K1, p2, k1 over another. 

And this cable cross is the reason that the "wrong" side (above) looks so good. 

I did add my own innovation in the form of the crown decreases (above), which are worked similar to a three-needle bind-off (without actually binding off any stitches), and preserve the cable architecture into the final rounds of the hat. 

The yarn I chose is a new line from Cascade Yarns, Baby Llama Chunky; it's available in undyed and dyed colors, and is very soft compared to most wools. It knits up at the same gauge as their Baby Alpaca Chunky (which came out awhile ago, is also very soft, AND happens to be on sale on one or two websites at the moment).

As for the name Wellfleet, the rippling cables and gray-lavender-blue of the yarn reminded me of a wintry sea, so I decided to give a shoutout to my home, Cape Cod. Wellfleet is one of the more remote towns on the Outer Cape-- lovely in summer, it's a very different (but still lovely) place in the winter (photo below copyright Dapixara.com). 

*Next week: the second of the pair, the Truro Hat

Lariana Cabled Pullover

The pattern for the Lariana Cabled Pullover is now available for purchase! Named after the Penisola Lariana (Lariana Peninsula)*, this pullover is a modern take on the Aran sweater, at home in the mountains, the city or on the shore, with set-in sleeves and streamlined stockinette side panels with diagonal accents. Three different lengths customize the fit: hip length (as shown), cropped and tunic length.

I've been considering ideas for a cabled sweater for awhile, and one of the first decisions I made was which stitch pattern to use for the central cable; I liked both of the diamond-themed designs in the photo below, but eventually decided to use the less-dense one, on the left.

The design for Lariana really started to take shape after I discovered the combination of this cable and the mirrored side wave cables. A traditional choice for the side panels for a fisherman or Aran sweater would have been heavily textured moss stitch (see below), or perhaps smaller cables.

I'm just not crazy about moss stitch, so I made a lot of swatches of different cable and texture patterns (some of which are pictured below), but none of them seemed quite right with the central cables, so I decided to go with smooth stockinette side panels, which I do believe lighten the overall look and streamline the fit.

For more pattern details, see the pattern page.

The yarn I used for this design, Katia Bulky Cotton, with a cotton core inside a mesh nylon tube, is unusual enough that my last blog post discussed it in some detail.

*The Penisola Lariana in Italy, also known as the Triangolo Lariano, is the mountainous triangle overlooking Lake Como, with points marked by the towns of Como, Bellagio and Lecco, and with myriad walking paths offering stunning views of the lake.

 

 

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An unusual yarn

It was a year or two ago that I started thinking about designing a cabled pullover, often called a fisherman or Aran sweater (or jumper if you're British). There's no mystery about where this idea came from-- they were all over the fashion pages from Fall 2014 ("run out RIGHT NOW and buy a fisherman sweater," from Glamour online) through Fall 2015 ("Fishing for Sweaters for Fall 2015," from T magazine). 

Although I love the oversized slouchy look of a big fisherman sweater on a model (or a man), I personally don't wear a lot of oversized clothing, and I don't usually wear wool; although I like to knit with it, I find it itchy to wear, and overly warm for most situations. So I didn't relish investing the time designing and knitting a cabled sweater if it wasn't something I was likely to wear. 

But then I got the idea of streamlining the fisherman sweater by using set-in instead of dropped sleeves, and using a yarn that was more warm-weather friendly, in a bulky weight so it would knit up more quickly; I pictured a cool summer or fall evening, outdoors on the beach or on a boat, and throwing a fisherman sweater on over a summer dress, or cropped pants (above photo from knitgrandeur.blogspot.com). In a worsted weight or thicker yarn, cotton by itself can be heavy and saggy when used in something as dense as a cabled sweater, but what about a cotton blend? 

I looked at many, many yarns: two of my favorites were Spud & Chloe Sweater (organic cotton and superwash wool) and Rowan All Seasons Cotton  (cotton and acrylic). But these were both a little thinner than I wanted. And then I found Katia Bulky Cotton.

The construction of this yarn is unusual: unlike most yarns, which are made of several thinner fibers twisted together, it is a mesh nylon tube with a cotton core (above photo: Spud & Chloe Sweater on the left, Katia Bulky Cotton on the right). It definitely has some pros and cons:

Pros:

• It has a pleasant soft, squishy feel and very good stitch definition.
• It's relatively light for a yarn of this thickness.
• It doesn't split easily.

Cons:

• It feels a bit like knitting with stockings, which takes getting used to.
• It's very stretchy, which means that it can easily be knit too tightly; tensioning the yarn lightly is important.
• The mesh tube snags fairly easily; although snags are almost impossible to fix (think fixing a snagged stocking), I found them easy to hide by making sure they are incorporated into the stitches,  and they don't compromise the integrity of the yarn.
• Any unevenness of stitches appears to be amplified. In the photo below, the stockinette stitch section shows "rowing out," which I usually don't notice in my knitting: up to the bottom of the armhole, the fabric is pretty uniform, because it was worked in the round (every row knitted), but after the start of the armhole, the fabric looks uneven because the wrong side rows were purled. 

In addition, my gauge was very different than the ball band gauge: when I used US #9 (5.5 mm) needles as recommended, I got a worsted weight gauge of 4 1/2 stitches to the inch, instead of the 3 1/2 stitches stated on the ball band. After going up two needle sizes to US # 10 1/2 (6.5 mm), I ended up with a gauge of 3 3/4 stitches to the inch.

The conclusion? I still liked this yarn because of its feel and stitch definition, but I'll have to see how it wears (and whether snagging is a big problem) before making a final recommendation.

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So many short rows!

My latest design, the Zinnia Tank, utilizes short rows to shape the upper chest and back to the curved edge of the yoke. But I've used short rows in many designs and many places before, and not just in the place they are most commonly used (to shape the shoulders). My first design accepted for publication by Interweave Knits, the Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell (summer 2007), used short rows to shape the front and back into triangles, so that the lace shoulder sections could be angled out, creating a narrow V-neck.

Almost all of my designs in which front and back are joined at the shoulders (including the Fern Fitted Shell and the Twisted Rib Cable Tank) utilize short row shoulder shaping; designs in which short rows are used in more creative ways include the Aran Wrap Cardigan (short rows shape the caps of the top-down set-in sleeves), the Treccione Pullover (short rows shape the yoke, 2nd photo), the Oscilla Wrap (short rows shape the wrap, pictured below), and the Leaf Yoke Top (1st photo, copyright Szyleczko). 

The Leaf Yoke Top is where I first used short rows to shape the front and back to the yoke. Usually a circular yoke is contiguous with the body of the sweater, but because the shoulders are shaped more like a narrow oval than a sphere, this does create slight distortion across the chest (most visible as a bit of slackness across the upper chest, seen subtly here and in more exaggerated form here). The stretch of the knitted fabric and relative looseness of many yoked sweaters makes this distortion irrelevant, but what is more noticeable is that the neckline and any yoke patterning usually form a wide, shallow arc (see here and here). This is the main reason I wanted to try something different with the Leaf Yoke Top and the Zinnia Top: I wanted a rounder neckline.

Although I'm happy with how the Leaf Yoke Top turned out, the neckline is still fairly shallow, and that is because I didn't use many short rows, so the triangles that meet the yoke on each side are only an inch or so high. For the Zinnia Tank, I used over twice as many short rows, and as a result the neckline is rounder and deeper. 

Short rows can be intimidating if you haven't tried them, but luckily there are numerous tutorials available online. Knitting Daily TV has a great video on four different ways to wrap short rows; if you prefer photos to video, here is a useful tutorial for the most common wrap and turn technique, from Knotions. One note: I find the wrap easier to pick up when the yarn is brought first to the front and then around the stitch to be wrapped, as shown by Eunny Jang in the video, but most tutorials have you wrap the stitch in the opposite direction.

Zinnia Tank

The ZInnia Tank pattern is available for purchase! (If interested in the design process, see here, here, here & here.) 

The boldly colored floral yoke is the focal point of this tank. In traditional Fair Isle fashion, only two colors are worked on each round, although a total of four different colors are used. Optional duplicate stitching (see photos of front of garment) is used to accent the center of each flower. After the yoke is completed, stitches are picked up around the bottom edge and worked down for the body; short rows are used to shape the upper part of the front and back to the yoke. With gentle waist shaping and simple rolled edges at hem and armholes, this tank has classic lines that work well with both casual and dressy outfits.

The difficulty of this pattern is Intermediate to advanced: Skills include stranded knitting, following a color chart, knitting in the round, picking up stitches, Knitted Cast-On, and short row shaping.

A preview of the Zinnia Tank

After all that color swatching, I ended up with a very simple color scheme for the yoke for my Zinnia Tank. After realizing that the Teal was creating an unwanted distraction in the background between the flowers, I tried adding space between the flowers, and then moving the stripes of Teal to different places, but eventually I realized that the Teal just stood out too much against the other colors to stay in the background.  So I ended up removing the Teal completely from the center of the yoke.

However, I kept thinking about how nice the Teal looked within the centers of the flowers (just not in the spaces between them). So I tried duplicate stitching over the Lilac with the Teal, and I liked the results a lot-- to my eye the spots of Teal unify the whole yoke and tie it in to the body. 

For this tank, the yoke is done first, and then stitches are picked up around its lower edge and worked down for the body, so I couldn't move on until the yoke was finished. Once I finally got the yoke done, the only other tricky part was the short rows that shape the front and back to the yoke's bottom edge.

The decreases that shape a knitted yoke are usually evenly distributed, which means that the yoke wants to be round. But since the upper chest and shoulders form more of a narrow oval, when worn the yoke also takes on an oval shape, making the neckline wide and shallow (as in the above photo of my Renee Pullover). For the Zinnia Top, I wanted more of a deep round neck, so I had to change the orientation of the oval from side-to-side to front-to-back-- which I did with short rows. The short rows form triangles of fabric on either side of the upper chest and back; without them, the fabric of the body would have pulled the yoke into that wide, shallow arc seen above. And making the front neck drop deeper than the back? That was a matter of sliding the yoke forward, then adjusting the lengths of the body portions of the armholes to keep the yoke positioned where I wanted it.

After the armholes, it was just a matter of a little waist shaping, some mindless TV knitting, and I was done with the sample! The pattern is now ready to be tech edited, so I hope to have it available for purchase very soon.

P.S. It's not that noticeable, but in the top two photos, the background is blurry-- and it didn't start out that way. Yes, I finally realized that you can use Photoshop to blur the background while keeping the subject in focus. Since I now shoot most of my photos with an iPhone, I'm really looking forward to using this technique for the modeled photos for the pattern.

Color Trials, Part 3

In Color Trials Part 2, I added three new colors to the four colors I had originally chosen for a design for a book of knitting patterns, and did a bunch of swatching. None of the swatches was quite what I was looking for, so I got out my color cards (I cut them up so I could see different colors next to each other), and purchased four MORE colors of yarn, which can be seen in the photo below, at the top left and middle, and the middle center and right: Apricot, Terra Cotta, Lilac and Cotton Ball.

I placed the skeins of yarn in various color groups before deciding which combos to chart, and eliminated some of the possible combinations before working up more Illustrator charts.

Here are the charts I created using all of the colors, and the corresponding swatches; the newest ones are in the bottom row. (#1 and #9 are the same except that the top and bottom bands of Olive in #1 have been eliminated in #9; the same colors show up differently in #9 because I cut/pasted it from another photo. Pale gray chart squares indicate "no stitch" because of decreases within the charts.)

My first thought was that I am a slow learner, because chart #10 has pretty low contrast-- and so does swatch #10! In my defense, I thought the colors were pretty together, and I was hoping that the yarn colors would show up a bit differently than the charted colors. No such luck-- although using all of those colors as background, and brighter and/or darker colors for a design, could be interesting.

I did like the clean, bright look of #11-- I think I was getting sick of the yellow-green of Celery. The Lilac and Orchid in #11 tend to blend together, so I considered just using three instead of four colors and dropping the Lilac-- but I also liked the way the muted Lilac adds a bit of depth. And I was getting sick of swatching, so I decided to forge ahead.

However, once I got the yoke partially completed, it became clear that my swatches had not showed an important element-- the transition areas between the flowers. Once these areas were visible, I started to see something I had not planned: anchors! Teal anchors that stood out clearly against the other colors.

And since anchors and flowers don't make a lot of sense together, I had to rework my chart and/or rethink color placement. 

Next: Finally: Zinnia!!

Color Trials, Part 2

Last week's post ended with many colors of yarn to play with. The above photo shows them in a different light than the photo I used at the end of my last post-- a good reminder that different light conditions can also affect how colors appear in photos and to the eye. The colors in the above photo are a little more saturated than they appear in real life.

I started experimenting with different color combinations, but rather than jumping right into knitting swatches, I first tried them out using Adobe Illustrator.

Illustrator has a library of color swatches, but it also has a spectrum that you can click on, and then you can take the resulting color and adjust the hue, saturation and lightness almost indefinitely, and save the resulting color as a new swatch to the color library. Although color charts or sketches can only approximate what a finished knitted colorwork swatch will look like, I figured that the closer I could get the Illustrator swatch colors to my yarn colors, the better idea I'd have of whether the various color combinations would work. (Hint: If using Illustrator for color charts, place the stitches for design and background in different layers so that you can easily change the color of all stitches in one chart component at once, without affecting other stitches.)

I now had seven custom colors added to my Illustrator color library (clockwise from top left in first photo): Robin's Egg Blue, Celery, Plum, Orchid, Magenta, Teal and Olive. As you can see from the above charts, these colors can be combined in many different ways (although all except two charts include the teal, since I wanted to use that for the body of my design). It is also immediately obvious from the charts that some color combinations provide much better contrast than others, notably the Plum/Celery (#4) and Magenta/Celery (#7). After playing around with these charts, I had a feeling that my favorite combo would be #2; I liked the muted contrast between Olive and Teal in the background, the subtle pop from the Orchid in the center, and finally, the Celery design seemed to stand out well enough against the Olive background. (And remember, the color combination to beat, or at least equal, was #1, which was what I had used for my similar book project.) 

The swatches that correspond to the charts are shown below. (I did my best to get the colors to show up accurately, but again they appear a bit more saturated than in real life.) No surprise that #4 and #7 have relatively high contrast, as well as #8 (which is the same as #7 but with Teal instead of Olive). I probably also should have been able to predict from the chart that #6 would have poor contrast within the design, although contrast between design and background is acceptable. What surprised me is that #2, my predicted favorite, looks rather dull and washed out, with less contrast between the Celery and Olive than I expected; I actually prefer #3.

Knitters with sharp eyes may note that in #3, the Olive stitches across the center were added in duplicate stitch; originally these were in Orchid, but I wasn't crazy about how that looked. Duplicate stitch is a good way to change a few stitches on a stranded swatch so the whole thing doesn't have to be re-knitted.

There does come a point in design development where the time and money invested yields diminishing returns, and I would say that I had reached that point. But since this will be a self-published design, I then asked myself: Several of these color combinations will work, but are any of them something that I would love to wear? And I'm afraid the answer was: Meh. 

What next? You guessed it-- more yarn.

 

Color Trials, Part 1

Although I love knitted colorwork and stranded or Fair Isle sweaters and accessories, I haven't created a lot of designs using multiple colors. Most of my stranded projects, like the Ferrovia collection or the Fish Isle Child's Pullover, use just two colors of yarn (although the latter uses a variegated contrast yarn, which is an easy way to add interest to simple colorwork). 

So I am really a novice when it comes to designing with multiple colors. I do have a couple of great reference books: The Art of Fair Isle Knitting by Anne Feitelson, and Alice Starmore's Book of Fair Isle Knitting.

(A few useful terms: "stranded knitting" and "Fair Isle" are often used interchangeably. Fair Isle is one of the Shetland Islands, which are part of Scotland, and is where Fair Isle knitting originated. "Stranded knitting" refers to a style of knitting with yarns of different colors, in which the yarns not being actively knitted are carried or stranded on the wrong side of the work, as in the above photo. In classic Fair Isle knitting, many colors may be used in a single garment, but only two colors are worked on any one round.)

Both of the above books discuss color theory and how to combine different colors at some length, but I will summarize the primary tenets for color knitting as follows:

1. Choose colors that look nice together.
2. Choose colors that have enough contrast so the design is visible.

#1 is somewhat a matter of personal taste, although as with sounds, colors do have inherent physical properties (wave length and all that) such that some combinations are naturally harmonious, and others, discordant. #2 is very important because without enough contrast, you might as well not go to the trouble of creating the design, since no one will see it! 

Of course it's not that simple to combine multiple colors in a pleasing way; you also have to consider how to transition between colors, which colors to use for background and which for the design, and where the focal point of the design should be (and how to use color to draw the eye there). But the crazy/fun/frustrating part is that it's not as simple as you might think to even achieve #1 and #2! Why? Because colors look different to the eye depending on what other colors are around them. 

I recently finished a design with a Fair Isle yoke for a book of knitting patterns that won't be published until Spring 2018. I had worked up several possible Fair Isle patterns for this knitted top, and really liked two of them, so I decided to use the 2nd place finisher (swatched below) in another (self-published) design. 

The colors I chose for the book project are shown in the swatch and also in the first photo; I used the olive green for the body. I didn't want to use the same colors for my self-published design, so I decided to use the teal for the body, and a different combination of colors for the yoke. 

The Brown Sheep Company was kind enough to provide their Cotton Fleece yarn (80% cotton, 20% wool) for my book project, but rather than ask them to send more, I purchased a few more colors of Cotton Fleece (see below).

Next week: More swatching...and more, and more...

 

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Colubrida Wrap

The Colubrida Wrap pattern appeared in the Interweave special issue Enchanted Knits 2014: Knits Fit for a Fairy Tale. The submission call for this issue, sent out in late 2013, stated:

    Be inspired by the generations who have imagined magical worlds filled with fairies and elves, spindles that can hop, skip, and jump, talking mirrors and magical handkerchiefs, witches and wizards, ghosts and giants, flying mortar and pestles and magical combs, and heroic journeys out into the world and within oneself.  

As it happened, I had recently been working on snake-themed ideas, since 2013 was the Chinese Year of the Snake. I had already completed the Nerodia Cardigan for Babies and Children and the Nerodia Cardigan for Women (above), but I had another idea that I liked, for a wrap that incorporated a snake motif. I had found the undulating lace stitch pattern in a Japanese stitch dictionary, and fiddled with it to create a head at one end and a tail at the other. I thought that this design would fit well with the theme of the magazine, and sent the submission into the editors with this description:

    “Colubrida” is the family name for many common snake genuses. Snakes have been featured in many different mythologies as a symbol of power, whether good or evil; I like to think of the serpent within this design as a sort of guardian, wrapped protectively around the wearer."

Above is a photo of the swatches I sent in with the submission, with the head end on the left, and below is a photo of the finished pattern sample, showing the snake's head (on the left) and tail (on the right). If you are feeling the urge to make one for yourself, the pattern is also available as a kit, with yarn included! (At the time of writing this post, the kit was "on sale," from $130.49 to $129.00-- a savings of a little over 1%. Not sure what that's about.)

 

It was fun to look through the magazine and see some of the other fanciful knits; three of my favorites, pictured below, were: Maleficent's Cloak by Vicki Square, the Hunger for Rampion Pullover by Jennifer Hagan, and the Honest Woodsman Pullover by Kathleen Danes. You don't often see a man with an ax in photos of knitwear! (Top photo and the three photos below are courtesy of Interweave Press.)

 

After this magazine was published and the sample was returned to me, I draped it on the mannequin in my office, and noticed one day that the head of the snake bears a passing resemblance to, well, a certain part of male anatomy. So I'm going to modify the pattern to remove one of the eyes from the head end, add a couple of pompoms to the tail end, call it the One-Eyed Trouser Snake Wrap, and offer said pattern in a kit with flesh-toned yarn... April Fool's! (I figured that anyone who reads this far at least deserves a laugh.)
 

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Inspiration at the Museum at FIT, Part 2

Last week I wrote about my visit to the Fairy Tale Fashion exhibit at the Museum at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology). I also saw the other two current exhibits, The Women of Harper's Bazaar and Denim: Fashion's Frontier. While these didn't pique* my imagination as much as Fairy Tale Fashion, they were still well worth a visit.

The women mentioned in the title of the first exhibit were not the models, but the women in charge from 1936-1958: Carmel Snow (editor-in-chief, Diana Vreeland (fashion editor) and Louise Dahl-Wolfe (photographer). The story of their collaboration was fascinating and the photos are amazing! Anyone with an interest in fashion photography would certainly enjoy this exhibit. As far as inspiration, many of the garments shown in photos were elaborately pieced and constructed, which I feel is usually the forte of woven (not knitted) fabrics. But the above wool swimsuit by Claire McCardell (1946) caught my eye-- not for the beach, but I could see wearing a similar knit top right now, out and about; love the high wrapped neck combined with halter styling and narrow waist. And the photo below shows the December 1945 cover: it's a little hard to tell, but I believe the scarf is accented with a large pin. I immediately thought of doing a knitted cowl with a large beaded or textured motif front and center. When it comes to accessories, I think easy is good; rather than carefully wrapping a scarf around and around your neck, and then placing a pin just so, simply pull said embellished cowl over your head and you're done! 

Denim: Fashion's Frontier explores the history of denim, from its beginnings in the early 1800s as a durable, utilitarian work fabric to its ubiquitous presence today, including its use by many fashion designers. The variable treatments of denim were quite remarkable, from baggy leisurewear of the 1930s to the familiar 70s and 80s hand-sewn patches and embroidery (remember those skirts made out of jeans?) to high fashion garments such as the corset (Jean Paul Gaultier, 1992) and the embroidered coat (Roberto Cavalli, 2003) pictured above and below. As far as inspiration, I found the corset construction intriguing (but where to go from there??), and as for the coat, I loved the placement of the flowers on the fronts, cuffs, collar and pocket flaps-- imagine replacing the embroidery with stranded colorwork or intarsia, or knitted lace....  I also found this exhibit interesting for two personal reasons: (1), I wear jeans almost daily (Levi's, mostly), and (2) knitting began in large part as a way to make the ultimate utilitarian garments! There is very little waste-- think of the cut scraps of a sewn garment compared to a few discarded yarn ends. Knitted clothing can be precisely shaped as it is made, yet knitted fabric is also stretchy and forgiving. And finally, parts of garments such as sock heels and sleeve cuffs can be repaired-- remade, really-- that is, re-knit so they are literally as good as new.

*not peaked! Sorry, pet peeve.

Finding inspiration at The Museum at FIT, part 1

This past week I was in NYC for a brief visit (less than 24 hours), staying in the Flatiron District. Or was it NoMad? I'm not sure. In any case, since I didn't want to waste my precious time in the city riding in a cab or on the subway, I looked for museums nearby, and discovered that I was not far from the Fashion Institute of Technology-- and The Museum at FIT. Jackpot!

Today I'm posting photos from just one of the three current exhibitions: Fairy Tale Fashion, because I have lots of them! In my next post I'll add photos from the other two exhibitions, The Women of Harper's Bazaar, 1936-1958 and Denim: Fashion's Frontier.

Fairy Tale Fashion was a real gold mine in terms of fanciful ideas that might be morphed into wearable knitted garments. Some of the designs actually included gold in the form of beading or sequins: the top photo shows a cape from the Blumarine Fall 2014 collection, while the second photo is a dress and hood ensemble from Dolce and Gabbana, also Fall 2014. I was thinking that the embellishments on the cape could be reinterpreted in a large scale knitted lace, while the stunning beadwork on the dress and hood made me wonder about a complex allover Fair Isle design--say, something like the Henry VIII pattern pictured above, by Alice Starmore. I love the idea of adding beads to accent the gold colored swirls and scrolls!  

The dress above, by Alexander McQueen from fall 2007, is embellished with sequined tresses that I could see worked instead as sinuous knitted cables, while the graphic motifs on the dress below, also Alexander McQueen (fall 2008), could inspire knitted color work OR lace. 

And finally, two dresses from the early 1900s: the first is by Mary Liotta, circa 1930, with a charming star pattern. What caught my eye was the variations in density of the stars, which creates a flattering (and flirty) effect, and which reminded me of the changing density of the eyelets in the Hanami knitted stole pattern I admired almost 10 years ago, from fellow independent designer, Melanie Gibbons.  

The last photo shows a dress by the Boué sisters, circa 1919. I was intrigued by the bodice, with its asymmetrical mix of fabrics, and the beautiful waistband.

Of clouds and dragons

In Chinese mythology, dragons and clouds go together: dragons create clouds with their breath, bring life giving rain, and are often pictured surrounded by stylized clouds. (Photo above from nationsonline.org.)

So when I was working on the lace dragon for the Dragon Lace Pullover, I also experimented with some lace clouds. I wanted them to be swirling and asymmetrical, and I tried out a couple of different sizes. I liked the results, but didn't end up using them for the Dragon Lace pullover because I thought the overall design would end up being too busy.

Recently my cloud swatches turned up, but when I went looking for the charts I had drawn with them, I couldn't find them. So I guess if I want to use them for something, I'll have to recreate the charts from the swatches (a PITA, for sure!). Oh well  :-/

Hints for knitting the Blue Ridge Sweater

A knitter contacted me to clarify the instructions for the sleeve increases for the Blue Ridge Sweater, which is one of the patterns in the Spring 2016 issue of interweave Knits. So I decided to include this information in a blog post, and also to offer an alternative to some of the instructions given in the published pattern. If you are just looking for these clarifications, skip to the last third of the post, because I first explain some of the practical challenges that shaped the final design of the body and sleeves. 

The Blue Ridge Sweater is an unusual pattern for me in that it only includes three sizes (I usually try to do a least five, and more often seven). This is because the pattern repeat is large, at 4 1/2"/11.5 cm wide--and if you consider that an odd number of repeats would bring the additional challenge of centering the design differently on front and back, it really makes the repeat 9" (so that there is always an even number of repeats). Since there is usually about a 4" difference between adjacent bust sizes, this pretty much meant that I could only write the pattern for every other size.

If this had been a more traditional Aran sweater, where the stitch patterns go straight up and down, large panels would have been less of a problem: many Aran sweaters center a large cable or textured pattern on front and back, or else have paired large panels on left and right, and surround these focal points with smaller panels in between (and on the sleeves). But since this is a yoked sweater, with the same two stitch patterns repeating around body, sleeves and then yoke, I had to figure out how to fit in the right number of the two types of panels for each size.

I started at the top by figuring out how big the base of the yoke (where sleeves and body are joined) should be for each size, which determined the number of pattern repeats. The size of the base of the yoke was guided by how big I wanted the body and sleeves to be at the levels of the bust and the upper arms, but I also had to decide how many stitches from body and sleeves I would hold for the underarms. If not enough stitches are reserved for the underarm, the sweater will be uncomfortably tight in this area; if too many, then the outer sleeves and/or the front and back will be too tight.

But holding back these stitches meant that there would be an interruption in the stitch patterns from sleeves and body, and for the patterns to continue unbroken around the yoke, any partial panels from sleeves and body would have to combine to make a single panel. Even if it happened that the stitches for the underarm were enough for one whole panel, I would have to make sure that the sequence of patterns from sleeves and body coordinated, so that I didn't end up with two of the same panels next to each other on the yoke. I used the diagram below to help me figure this out for each size (B stands for Cable & Bobble panel, and L for Lace panel, and the vertical lines between the large and small circles of Bs and Ls represent the underarm stitches).

And what I finally concluded is that the various parts of the sweater would fit better if there was a narrow plain (stockinette stitch) panel on each side of the body. This allowed me to more easily allot the right number of stitches to underarm, body and sleeves, for the best fit for each size. The plain panels are not noticeable, and disappear into the underarm, allowing the Lace and the Cable & Bobble stitch patterns to continue uninterrupted around the yoke.

This solution also suggests an alternative to the sleeve increase instructions given in Interweave Knits, which tell you to work all of the increases into repeats of the Lace or the Cable & Bobble pattern. In every size, there are enough stitches increased to complete one or two of the patterns, but then there are additional increases which are not enough to form full panels.

So instead of working incomplete Lace or Cable & Bobble panels, here is what you could do: 

For Size 36 1/4", after working the first 11 increases into the Cable and Bobble pattern, work the remaining four increases as follows: first as a purl stitch, and then as a knit stitch for the last three increases.

For Size 43 1/2", after working the first 11 increases into completing the Lace pattern, work the remaining five increases as follows: first as a purl stitch, and then as a knit stitch for the last four increases.

For Size 52 1/2", after working the first 8 increases into completing the Lace pattern and the next 11 stitches into the Cable and Bobble pattern, work the remaining five increases as follows: first as a purl stitch, and then as a knit stitch for the last four increases.

I feel this is easier than trying to decide how to work a partial lace or cable panel that no one is going to see anyway (unless you are raising your arm). You will end up with a narrow plain triangle at the top of the underside of the sleeve. The first stitch of the round will remain in the center of the top of this triangle, which will thus be 7 (9, 9) stitches wide (not including the purl stitches on each side), to join to the top of the plain panel at the side of the body. The photo below shows how it will look.

Whether you decide to work the sleeve increases as published in Interweave, or as described above, here are a few clarifications:

• Increases are paired; that is, you will be forming two new panels with the increases, one just after the beginning of the round, and one at the end of the round. 
• The first stitch of the round remains at the center of the underarm.
• When you are working the sleeve increases into the stitch patterns, do them starting from the left side of the chart for the increase near the beginning of the round, and starting from the right side of the chart for the increase at the end of the round. This will make the partial panels mirror images and also make them continuous with the rest of the stitch patterns (see above). 

Revisiting the Circles Vest

I published the pattern for the Circles Vest back in 2011, but I never did get around to writing about the design process, or suggesting substitute yarns, as I had promised. Since it's a great transitional layering piece, going from spring to summer to fall, and since the yarn I used has since been discontinued, this seemed like a good time to rectify that lapse.

This vest really started with the "circles" stitch pattern, which yields an unusual and subtle textured fabric that is not quite as stretchy as ribbing, not as three-dimensional as cables. When I saw that it creates a subtle gathering effect next to plain stockinette, I though it would work well as a waist accent. After that I worked out the other garment details with some sketching and swatching: a deep V-neck, curved front hems, and pockets! While these pockets are mainly decorative, you could definitely stow a few bills or, I don't know, tickets or business cards or a shopping list (if you don't use your phone for that...probably a cell phone would be too big/heavy for these pockets). Or you could stand around with your hand in one of them...anyway, I digress.

As to suitable yarns, there are literally dozens; the stockinette stitch gauge is 23 stitches to four inches, or 5.75 stitches to one inch, so choose a DK-weight (or light #3) yarn with an appropriate fiber content (see below), and make sure you can get the proper gauge by making a gauge swatch.

The yarn I used for the pattern was a blend of cotton and wool, which is great for multi-season use; cotton can lack resilience if used on its own, so the wool adds springiness, while the cotton keeps the wool from being too warm. On the other hand, if you'd like more warmth, an all-wool yarn would certainly work well for this design. Other blends such as cotton/microfiber or cotton/silk would also work, and the right all-cotton yarn would work too; look for a pima cotton yarn with a fairly tight twist.

Here are some yarns I have worked with personally:

• Plymouth Yarn Select DK Merino Superwash (100% merino), which I used for the Nerodia Cardigan for babies and children
• Valley Yarns Longmeadow (cotton/microfiber), which was used for the Bell Yoke Tee
• Sublime Egyptian Cotton DK (100% cotton)
• SweetGeorgia Yarns Superwash DK (100% merino), which was chosen for the Plaited Tam
• Misti Alpaca Tonos Pima Silk (pima cotton/silk), which I used for the Onda Scarf
• HazelKnits Lively DK (merino wool/nylon), which was chosen for the Fish Isle Pullover
• The Fibre Company Acadia (merino/silk/alpaca), which was chosen for the Altocumulus Shawl

And here are a few more which I have not used myself, but which have gotten glowing reviews from knitters:

• Cascade Yarns Ultra Pima (100% cotton)
• Garnstudio Drops Cotton Merino (cotton/merino)
• Cascade Yarns Anchor Bay (cotton/merino), new this year

These last three (and the Valley Yarns Longmeadow) have the added advantage of being very reasonably priced.

I'm lucky enough to be able to do some of my photo shoots in Italy...but can I tell you how many funny looks I got for wearing a helmet while cycling around Como? Only racing cyclists and small children wear helmets over there! I had even brought my own fashion-forward helmet from the States, but it didn't matter....

 

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Blue Ridge Sweater

The new Spring 2016 issue of Interweave Knits includes my Blue Ridge Sweater. It's worked in the round from the bottom up with a round yoke. The highly textured stitch pattern alternates a bobbled cable with a not-too-open lace panel. I suggested using Juniper Moon Farms Sabine for this project; Sabine is a heathery 40% cotton/30% merino wool/30% royal llama blend, which means it's great for multi-season use, and it comes from a very special yarn producer. 

I discovered Juniper Moon Farm (JMF) almost eight years ago, when I purchased a share of their Fall 2008 yarn harvest for $100; JMF offered the country’s first yarn CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). The farm was founded in 2007 by Susan Gibbs, a former network news producer, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, with an initial flock of just five sheep. Over the years, the JMF flock has grown to include Cormo, Babydoll Southdown, Cotswold, and colored Border Leicester sheep, as well as Mohair goats. In addition, the farm is home to a number of Maremma sheepdogs, including Sabine, after whom Sabine yarn is named. In 2009, the farm moved to Virginia, and at the end of 2015, the yarn CSA ended, and the JMF flock retired to live out the rest of their days in leisure. However, Susan remains the Creative Director of Juniper Moon Farm Yarns, which use fibers grown in Peru, Argentina, Nepal, and Italy.

When the issue became available, I asked the publisher for some higher resolution photos than those that were on their website, and I am so glad I did! They emailed me some gorgeous photos, some of which I've included in this post; many thanks to Interweave Knits and Harper Point Photography.

My working name for the sweater was the Granola Pullover, because of the rich texture of the fabric. But I love the name Blue Ridge Sweater-- the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia is one of my favorite drives in the world. And even though the photo shoot for the magazine was done in Colorado, some of the photos really look like they could have been taken in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains; the last photo, with a garden and house in the background, reminds me of a friend's home near Asheville, NC.

 

Spalle Pullover

"Spalle" is Italian for "shoulders," and since the shoulders are the focus of this design, I thought that would be an appropriate name. Published in the Winter 2015 issue of Twist Collective, the Spalle Pullover is worked seamlessly in the round from the bottom up, with a yoke construction that has an effect somewhat like saddle shoulders (although I think of saddle shoulders in connection with drop-shouldered, loose-fitting sweaters, and usually the saddle is joined to front and back without additional decreases). I was experimenting with different ways of yoke and shoulder shaping, and when I decided to try using only paired decreases along the tops of the shoulders, I realized early on that this went well with ribbing, which has a lot of stretch and helps the fabric to conform to the body. I really liked the way that the decreases caused the ribs to converge and overlap.

Above is my original sketch, with short sleeves (the Twist Collective editors preferred a 3/4-length sleeve); I stuck with a closely-fitted silhouette throughout, using the same type of decreases to shape the waist.

I was delighted when I received the yarn for the sample (Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silky Victoria), and saw that it was a gorgeous red-orange, quite similar to the color of the heavy worsted (#4 Medium) weight yarn that I had used for the swatches. But then I saw that it was a sport weight (#2 Fine) yarn, which was much thinner than I had expected, and I started to worry that knitting the sample would take much longer than I had planned. Luckily I found after swatching that I could use US #6 needles and get a gauge of 24 sts to 4 inches. This was still higher than I had originally planned, but the resulting fabric was so light and springy that I was very happy with the end result. The Silky Victoria was wonderful to work with-- the silk content gives it a nice sheen and impressive tensile strength. And there are so many lovely colorways that I was actually glad I didn't have to choose just one-- Beryl? Jasper? Mermaid Tears? Winter Blues? If you order yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, they dye it to order, so the number of colors available is truly amazing. And if at first glance it appears that the yarn is expensive, at $36 a skein, note that each skein is 695 yards; the sample I made only took two skeins.

The design process for Spalle was relatively straightforward; the only major change I made to my original concept was to add more waist decreases, placed like princess seams; in order for these decreases to become a visible design element, as shown in the sketch, I needed more than four or five decreases. But too many decreases would either have made the waist too small, or I would have had to start with too large a hip circumference, so for half of the decreases, I added compensatory increases along the sides. Both the decreases and the compensatory increases are visible in the above photo.

This pattern lends itself to adjustments such as making the body longer or shorter (just add or subtract rounds before beginning the waist shaping), or lengthening or shortening the turtleneck. The sleeves could easily be made short, as shown in the sketch, by casting on the number of stitches after all sleeve increases are completed, and working even for a few inches. Since the ribbing is very stretchy, they could also be made full length by casting on the same number of stitches as for the 3/4 length sleeves, and recalculating the increase frequency (but keeping the number of increases the same). There might be a very slight belled effect at the cuff, but it would be subtle.

I don't think I'll get the sample back in time to wear it before spring arrives (hint to Mr. Groundhog for tomorrow!), but I'm looking forward to wearing it next winter!

(Top photo copyright Twist Collective/Crissy Jarvis)

 

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New pattern: the Madaket Tank (and a pattern sale...)

Windley

Sample sale!

It used to be that magazines would keep the samples for the patterns they commissioned, but lately, it's more common that the samples are returned. The cynic in me says that in addition to running out of room to store dozens upon dozens of samples, magazine publishers are hoping that designers will look at the return of the sample as a form of payment, allowing them to pay a lower fee for the actual design work. 

Anyway. I too am running out of room to store samples, so I've decided to sell some of them. I don't have the time to auction them off; all I really want to do is to get them to someone who will wear and enjoy them, rather than having them sit and gather dust on a shelf. So I'm charging $25 for each one, to cover the cost of packing and shipping within the U.S.

If you're interested in a particular sample, email me at [email protected] with the name of the design and your name and address  I'll reply to the first email I receive for each sample with my Paypal info, and once the payment goes through, I'll put the sample in the mail. If you live outside the U.S., you can still email me, but we will have to see if we can agree on a price that covers shipping to wherever you are.

(I'm aware that this low price may make it worth someone's while to buy a sample just to reclaim the yarn-- so be it.)

Here are the samples I am selling:

Double Wing Top (even though this design was published in a book of patterns for pregnant women (it's the cover design!), it still works well as en empire-waisted top for non-pregnant women). Bust size 32".

No Gap Wrap Pullover. Bust size 47 3/4".

Wyvern Wrap. Bust size 36".

RIb & Braid Jumper. Bust size 33-36".

Laredo Vest (unisex). Chest/bust size 38".

Seaweed Vest. Bust size approx 37".

 

New pattern: the Madaket Tank (and a pattern sale...)

Just released the pattern for this sleeveless tank-- and there's still time to knit it before the end of the summer. Madaket is named after a village on the island of Nantucket-- which is where I'm headed this weekend, so more on this design later!

P.S. All patterns in my Ravelry Store are discounted 10% until August 6th-- just enter the coupon code July31

Windley

The Windley cap-sleeved top was recently published in the Spring issue of Twist Collective. Perfect for summer knitting, it's worked in the round from the top down, in a DK weight warm-weather-friendly cotton/microfiber yarn (Valley Yarns Longmeadow). I modified the Pagoda lace pattern from Barbara Walker's Third Treasury to create the large lace panel that adorns the upper front and back. The main reason the top is not knitted from the bottom up is that I liked the look of the lace better when it is upside down!

Once the lace panels and raglan yoke shaping are completed, feel free to watch your favorite TV show while you knit the rest in simple stockinette; some easy waist shaping, a rolled hem, a few rounds on each sleeve, and you're done, with plenty of time left before sweater weather returns to wear Windley over shorts, jeans, a skirt...

And the name? Windley is one of the smaller Florida Keys, located about halfway between Key Largo and Marathon. If you go diving in the Keys you may well see staghorn coral, which is what I think of when I look at Windley's lace panel.

 

(First 3 photos, copyright Chrissy Jarvis and Twist Collective.)

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