Knititude

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)

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Odessa Tunic from Knitted Tanks and Tunics

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)

 

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)

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.

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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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.

 

Prow Pullover

Once again (as for the Zephirine Cardigan), I'm about a year late in posting about one of my designs: the Prow Pullover, which appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of Interweave Knits. This pullover has a wide V-neck bordered by knitted lace, 3/4-length sleeves, and an easy, flattering A-line shape, which is created by decreases that shape the front inverted pleat into a triangle. I used a wool/cotton blend yarn which holds its shape well. Below is my original sketch from the design proposal I submitted (clearly drawing skill did not have a lot to do with the design being accepted, AND the editors made sure I knew that they did not want sleeves of different lengths!).

The focal point of the pullover is definitely the neckline. In developing the design, I started with the lace stitch pattern: it has a diamond-shaped motif, which lends itself to stacking diagonally along the neck edge, AND to having the neckline decreases worked into the lace stitch pattern. These decreases have the bonus effect of creating a nice subtle scalloping along the neck edges.

The decreases are also the reason neckline is so wide: normally I prefer to decrease every 3rd row to shape a V-neck, because I find that decreasing every 4th row creates a "V" that is too narrow, while every 2nd row creates a "V" that is too wide. (And apparently many ready-to-wear sweater makers agree with me; I took a look at my husband's Malo and Ralph Lauren V-neck pullovers, and they all had decreases every 3rd row along the front neck edges.) But I haven't yet found a lace stitch pattern into which you could incorporate decreases every 3rd row and not mess up the stitch pattern-- or a textured or cabled stitch pattern, for that matter. (I suppose I could have placed the neck decreases between the lace border and the pullover fronts, but that would have been a totally different look). 

In writing up the pattern, I also had to take into account the fact that the lace pattern has a different gauge than the stockinette stitch used in the body and sleeves. But knitting the rest of the pullover is pretty simple, with garter stitch edgings at the hem and cuffs, a bit of ribbing at the back neck to help it keep its shape, and set-in sleeves. There's no side waist shaping, which makes it easy to change the length of the pullover (although you would have to take into account the fact that the front pleat decreases by 2 stitches every 6 rounds).

Incidentally, my original name for this sweater was "Espalier"; I thought the diagonals of the neck edges were reminiscent of an espaliered tree or shrub.