Knititude

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).

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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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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Prow Pullover

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. 

 

 

 

I'm still waiting for that pullover pattern....

I've been working on getting the Bunny Yoke Child/Baby Pullover pattern ready for publication. But this has been a learning process for me; I learn something with every pattern I write, but this one-- more so than usual. I have some other stranded knitting designs on the drawing board, but this is the first pattern I've done which includes stranded colorwork. So dealing with the fact that stranded knitting usually has a different gauge than stockinette st was one issue.

Another issue-- yoke shaping for babies and children. For ages 6 months and up, there are standard measurements available for cross back, upper arm, armhole depth, and raglan depth (for the latter it is necessary to consult the Knit It Now tables-- thanks to my tech editor for telling me about those!), but these are only indirectly helpful in deciding how rapidly the yoke circumference should decrease.

Anyway, I hope to have the pattern done by the end of the month--sorry for the delay!

Lace Cable Rib Pullover

Pattern now available!  This top-down pullover has endured a lengthy process from conception to completion (I will do a future post about the design process), and in the end has become one of my own most-worn designs.  

It goes well with jeans or can be dressed up, and the slightly elongated sleeves and body are flattering for most figures. 

Sadly, it appears that the Tilli Tomas Fil de la Mer yarn I used has been discontinued-- but I did do extensive swatching of other yarns and was able to find a number of them that, although not an exact replacement in terms of fiber mix and properties, should work well.  

The first and third photos show the sweater with the scooped neckline worn in back, which I think I may prefer to wearing it with scooped neckline in front (second and fourth photos).  I purposely chose a lace pattern that wasn't too open, so an underlayer wouldn't be necessary--- all photos show the sweater worn over a bra only.  

See the pattern page for more details about sizes and yarn requirements.  The body-skimming fit is due to the rib stitch pattern and the drape of the yarn; there is no waist or sleeve shaping.  This means that it is VERY easy to customize body and sleeve lengths to your liking, since there are no bust, waist, or sleeve shaping decreases or increases to recalculate.  I found the top-down yoke a lot of fun to knit-- the raglan increases, casting on the stitches for the center front, and dividing for the body and sleeves all keep it interesting.  After that point, well, it is great semi-mindless knitting!  (If you see this as a travel or commuter project, I recommend doing the sleeves before the body, to keep the bulk of it down for as long as possible.)

 

 

 

 

Substitute yarns for the Lace Cable Rib Pullover

Since the yarn I used for the soon-to-be-published Lace Cable Rib Pulloverhas been discontinued, I have swatched with a number of possible substitute yarns to make sure the proper gauge can be achieved. When substituting yarn, it is especially important to knit a good-sized gauge swatch and measure it after blocking.

I chose possible yarns based on ball band gauge and fiber content, hoping to find yarns with similar drape and weight.  This proved to be rather difficult!  The Tilli Tomas Fil de la Mer is in a sort of in-between class, on the light side of DK and on the heavy side of sport.  My comments are below.

Clockwise from top left:

Debbie Bliss Prima, 80% bamboo, 20% merino wool, 100m/50 g skein, color #35704, using US size 4/3.5 mm needles.  Nice luster and drape, quite splitty (as Ysolda pointed out in a comment on an earlier post), a bit on the heavy side (it has 100 m per 50 g, compared to the Fil de la Mer at 128 m per 50 g). 

Misti Alpaca Tonos Pima Silk, 83% pima cotton, 17% silk, 327 yds/100g skein, using US size 5/3.75 mm needles.  Gorgeous subtly variegated color, a bit of sheen, really nice to knit with, not quite as drapey as the Fil de la Mer, but I really liked this yarn a lot.  It also comes in solid andhandpainted colors (although my preference would be for the subtly variegated or solid colors for this pattern).

Classic Elite Allegoro, 70% cotton, 30% linen, 152 yds/50 g skein, color #5650, using US size 5/3.75 mm needles.  Quite lightweight (a good thing, in my opinion), nice dry hand, moderate drape, a matte surface without much luster, knits up a tad loosely (I first tried US size 6/4 mm needles, but then went down a size, and I wouldn't be surprised if a US size 4/3.5 mm needle was required for some knitters to get the proper gauge).  I liked this yarn, but it is quite different from the Fil de la Mer.

Patons Grace, 100% cotton, 136 yds/50 g skein, color #62246 Leaf, using US size 6/4 mm needles.  Nice stitch definition and sheen, but the fabric has a crisp feel and lacks drape; I ended up not including this as a suggested substitute in the pattern, even though I achieved the correct gauge.

Frog Tree Picoboo, 60% pima cotton, 40% bamboo, 116 yds/50 g skein, color#1000, using US size 5/3.75 mm needles.  Nice sheen and soft hand, a bit on the heavy side, moderate drape.

Mirasol Nuna, 40% merino wool, 40% silk, 20% bamboo, 191 yds/50 g skein, color #1009, using US size 5/3.75mm needles.  This is a very lightweight yarn with a lot of luster; a pleasure to work with; more bounce and less drape than the Fil de la Mer, but this and the light weight will actually help the sweater hold its shape (as I state in the pattern, with the Fil de la Mer you can expect the body and sleeves of the sweater to stretch an inch or more in length while worn--this may not be the case if using the Nuna).  This swatch wanted to be a tiny bit small, so if you decide to use it, block heavily and make sure you can get the right gauge.  Lots of lovely colors. 

I also swatched with Louet MerLin sport weight, a merino wool/linen blend (I used the worsted version of this yarn for a recent unbloggable project and liked it), but it knit up at too fine a gauge.  Finally, after I did all this swatching, I noticed the tempting Madeline Tosh Pashmina on a website somewhere, and I think this could also work nicely.  As always with MT, the colors are just amazing.  It's 75% wool, 15% silk and 10% cashmere, so it would probably be less drapey than the Fil de la Mer.

Sometimes swatches lie

I decided to knit myself a Plaited Tam, but I wanted to try a different yarn; even though I loved the SweetGeorgia Yarns Superwash Sport I used for the sample, it's not available locally, and can take up to four weeks to arrive if ordered from the SweetGeorgia website (since it's dyed to order).  So I decided to make things a little challenging for myself, and use a yarn of a different gauge:  Cascade 220 Superwash, which is more of a light worsted weight.  I did a swatch of a couple of repeats of the Plaited Tam stitch pattern, including the ribbing, and since one repeat measured 2 to 2 ¹/₄ inches at the bottom edge, after blocking, I figured the larger size, with 8 repeats, would give me a finished circumference of 16-18 inches.  Sounds good, right?  (I didn't care so much about the finished diameter of the tam-- a little oversized was fine with me).

I used Color #1910, a heathered aqua (color in photos is off-- it's much prettier in real life), and after blocking over a large plate, it was a bit oversized, at around 12" diameter.  But the ribbing part was only around 16" when measured while the tam was lying flat, so...

it was only when I tried to put it on that I realized that it was definitely too large!  I could not get it to stay on my head without it slipping down over my eyes, unless I perched it back behind my hairline (and then it looked like a wooly shower cap).

Lesson learned: even if a swatch seems to measure properly when lying flat, it is essential to consider how the fabric will behave when it's worn; in this case, the ribbing stretched too much under its own weight to hold the hat on my head.  I should have measured the swatch slightly stretched; when I did, one repeat measured 2 ³/₄ inches, which translates to a circumference of 22" (and my head is 21").  

Next:  I try knitting the smaller size!

My own Leaf Yoke Top

I really hated to give up the sample I knitted in Tahki Nova for my Leaf Yoke Top pattern, which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of knit.1.  But much as I liked it, I couldn't get my original submission swatch (pictured at left) out of my mind:  I had used Filatura di Crosa Brillante, a cotton/viscose blend in a pale golden beige, and even though I wasn't crazy about knitting with it, the finished fabric was just beautiful.  Plus, because the Brillante is finer than the Nova, the lace yoke is narrower, and thus the neckline doesn't need to be quite so high; with the Nova, if the yoke started lower, it would have extended too far over the shoulders.  And finally, what else was I going to do with all of that Brillante I had in my stash?  This seemed like a perfect use for it.

I knew I was going to have to do some serious recalculating, because the gauge for the Tahki Nova was 19 sts and 26 rows to 4 inches on US #6 needles, while the Brillante knitted up at 26 sts and 38 rows to 4 inches on US#4 needles.  But the changes turned out to be pretty straightforward, just a matter of plugging in the gauge numbers and the finished dimensions I wanted, and going from there.  For instance, for the yoke, which is worked in the round from the top down, I cast on 132 instead of 88 sts, and did 12 reps of the leaf repeat instead of 8 for the yoke. 

I picked up the stitches to knit the body from the yoke twice:  the first time, as directed in my pattern, I used a smaller needle (US #3) to pick up and knit the stitches.  But yikes, when it came time to knit those stitches with a US #4 needle, it was nearly impossible!  Inserting the needle into each stitch tightened the next stitch on the needle so much that I was cursing the stupid designer (me) as I was trying to push those super-tight stitches along the needle!  I finally gave up, ripped back to the bare yoke, and picked up and knit the stitches for the body again, using a bigger needle.  Maybe if the yarn had been stretchier, using the smaller needle would have worked, but the Brillante is not one of those yarns that is a dream to knit:  it's kind of harsh on your fingers, splitty, and it has no stretch whatsoever.  (Come to think of it, the Nova didn't have much give, either....)

But once I got into the stockinette stitch body, I loved the Brillante again-- the fabric has such a lovely drape and weight and sheen to it.  I lengthened the body a bit, but otherwise followed the pattern, making changes only to adjust for the different yarn gauge.

I had hoped to finish this top in time to wear it this summer, but it only just finished blocking yesterday.  This morning there was actually frost on the ground, but by afternoon it was in the 60s!  So I took the opportunity for a quick photo shoot; could be awhile before I'll get another chance to go sleeveless.

Leaf Yoke Top

One of my patterns is in the new Spring/Summer 2009 issue of Knit.1!  The Leaf Yoke Top is sleeveless and is worked in the round from the top down, starting with the lace yoke.  It's a fun knit, and goes quickly in a worsted weight yarn-- I highly recommend it! 

When I first started thinking about the design, I was picturing a wide, ornate circular collar like those shown in drawings of ancient Egyptian royalty; you can see from the submission sketch (below) that I tried to pose the model and draw her head in such a way as to suggest an Egyptian influence.  Originally I wasn't sure whether I would try a Fair Isle or a lace pattern for the yoke, and I wasn't planning to work from the top down-- but then I discovered Marianne Kinzel's First Book of Modern Lace Knitting(originally published in 1954).  This book contains lace patterns worked from end to end as well as square and round lace patterns worked from the center out, and shows them used as tablecloths, placemats, doilies, curtains and bedspreads-- but not in any type of garment!  Nevertheless, I immediately thought that if I could omit the very center of one of the round  lace patterns, I could adapt it for use as a wide collar.

I decided to try "Primula," a lace design intended for use as a coffee cloth (whatever that is!).  The instructions in the book call for crochet cotton, which is much finer than the yarn I wanted to use, and I knew I would only be using a small part of the entire lace pattern, so I really wasn't sure how the yoke would turn out until I swatched it.

First I tried Filatura di Crosa Brillante, a sport weight cotton/rayon blend with a slightly metallic sheen, which I happened to have in a light gold color.  I loved it!  I then made a bigger swatch so I could figure out how to transition from the yoke to the body, which I did using short rows.  (The large swatch I made is pictured draped over my shoulder.)  I also made a swatch using Sublime Organic Cotton DK, just to see how it would look in a heavier yarn; after doing some calculating, I then decided that the pattern wouldn't work in a heavier yarn, because the yoke would just become too large, meaning that I wouldn't be able to do enough repeats to make a circle without the diameter getting too big, or else it would have to start too high up at the base of the neck, and perhaps end up coming down too far over the top of the arm.  

Of course, Knit.1 then decided they wanted me to use a worsted weight yarn (Tahki Nova)!  So I did some more calculating, and although you can see that the yoke does start higher up than with the Brillante, it works just fine.  The yoke is bound off and then stitches are picked up along the bound off edge and worked down, in stockinette; I shaped the waist using decreases and increases along the sides, and used a turned hem to give the bottom edge enough body to balance the wide yoke-- and voila.