Knititude

Upside-down bobbles are just not the same

I've been working on a hooded vest with a deep V-neck and a kangaroo pocket. It has bobble trim around the hem, the pocket edges, the neck fronts and the hood. Since it's worked from the bottom up, the bobbles around the hem are worked on the first round. I'll be honest-- that round takes FOREVER-- but after that the knitting goes much faster, especially since I decided to use a chunky weight yarn. 

I did realize early on that the bobbles along the pocket, neck and hood edges would be worked from the opposite direction-- that is, on the last row before binding off. I even did a swatch and it seemed like that would probably work. At least I thought it was worth a try, since I generally much prefer knitting on edgings to knitting them separately and sewing them on.

But as you can see from the above photos, the bobbles along the bound off edges (vertical) don't lie the same way as the ones along the cast on edge (horizontal); they want to flip back on top of the ribbing. And I really don't like the way they look when the edge is folded over (as it will be when the vest is worn with the hood down). The ribbing is also too stretched out; I prefer it more relaxed, as it is along the hem.

Plan B: Knit the edging separately, bobbles first, and sew it on! 

 

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Zephirine Cardigan

Honey Pullover

Zephirine Cardigan

The Zephirine Cardigan pattern appeared in the Spring 2014 issue of Interweave Knits-- yes, one year ago. I never got around to writing a blog post about the design process, so this seemed like a good time to remedy that. It may be hard right now to even think about going outside with just a sweater, at least here in the snow-buried Northeast! But this is a great three-season cardigan, perfect for cool spring days, chilly summer evenings, and crisp fall afternoons. Part of its versatility comes from the yarn (Universal Yarn Nettle Lana), an unusual organic wool/nettle blend; the wool provides warmth and shape, while the nettle fiber (related to hemp and flax) adds drape and a pleasing dry hand.

Looking back, it seems that I was obsessed with garments with yokes at the time that I came up with the idea for this design: at the time, I was also working on the Plumage Wrap, the Bell Yoke Tee, the Facet Pullover, and the Cabled Capelet (which will be included in the book Wanderlust, coming out in both a print and an e-book version in March 2015). In all of these designs, I was having fun with how to work the yoke decreases into different stitch patterns. (Photo below, clockwise from top left: Facet Pullover, Plumage Wrap, Cabled Capelet and Bell Yoke Tee; all images courtesy of Interweave Press except Facet Pullover: courtesy of Twist Collective and Linus Ouellet.) For Zephirine's lace yoke, I did two things: omitted some of the yarnovers in the last repeat of the lace pattern, and changed to a smaller knitting needle halfway through the yoke. 

There are several other design elements that I really like in this cardigan. I like the way the yoke is fastened only at the center, allowing the neckband to separate into a flattering "V" at the top front edge, and allowing the lower front edges to gracefully fall away to the sides. To avoid having to add a front edging that would interrupt the lace, I simply added button loops to one of the front edges of the lace section. And finally, I like the subtle textured vertical lines that extend from the yoke down the body and sleeves. To allow these lines to continue uninterrupted, I decided not to taper the sleeves or shape the waist; the angled fronts still create a flattering silhouette, and the sleeves are 3/4 rather than full length to allow for wider cuffs. This makes knitting the body and sleeves quite simple! It did require some math to make sure that when I added all of the stitches from the body and sleeves (and subtracted the stitches held for the underarms), I ended up with the right number of stitches for the yoke lace repeat-- especially since those textured vertical lines flow right into the lace.

Above is a photo taken in my yard, just before I sent the sample off to Interweave; below is the same yard, about a week ago! 

 

 (1st, 2nd and 4th photos courtesy of Interweave Press)

 

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Honey Pullover

Honey Pullover

 

My Honey Pullover design is in the just-released Spring 2015 issue of Interweave Knits (1st, 4th and 5th photos courtesy of Harper Point and Interweave Press). I got the idea for the set-in sleeves when I was looking at a swatch of a lace pattern (see below), and realized that the lace stitches pulled the fabric into a shape which looked a lot like a sleeve cap on the top. I also liked the curve created along the bottom of the swatch, and thought it would be a flattering shape for a sleeve cuff. 

This design was rejected by the first publication to which I submitted it (not an unusual occurrence!). So I set it aside, and when I got the submission call for this issue of Interweave Knits, and one of their storyboard themes seemed a good match, I sent it in again-- and this time it was accepted. 

When it came time to translate my sketched design into X number of rows and stitches, I was a bit concerned about how I would figure out how much of the sleeve cap shaping I could just leave up to the distortion caused by the lace stitches, and how much I would have to add with the usual shaping decreases-- and how to adjust this for each and every size. This didn't turn out to be too complicated: I just measured the height and width of the curved top of my lace swatch, and then added the additional shaping needed for each size. I should say it wasn't complicated IN ADDITION TO the usual calculations for set-in sleeve cap shaping. BUT although these are a bit time-consuming, working out the math ahead of time is always faster than knitting by trial and error. Carpenters like to say "measure twice, cut once;" for knitwear designing, it's "math twice, knit once."

Also, I was glad that I had visualized this design with a 3/4 length sleeve, because the lace panel would not have looked right except with a full repeat of the lace pattern, which meant that the sleeve length could only be changed in increments of about 1 1/2 inches. The 3/4 length sleeve was more forgiving than a full-length sleeve as far as setting the sleeve length for each size.

My original name for this pullover was "Mattina," which means "morning" in Italian; the editors of the magazine decided to change the name to "Honey." When I choose a name, I consider how the name sounds, the appropriateness and versatility of any references to color or design elements (keeping in mind that knitters will often choose a different color yarn), and then I do a search on Ravelry to see how many times that name has already been used. I try not to choose names that have been used a lot, to make it easier for knitters to find a particular design by name. "Mattina" has never been used. "Honey," on the other hand, has been used over 50 times*. Just sayin'. 

*as all or part of the name of a design, i.e. "Honey Bunny" or "Raw Honey"