Knititude

Nerodia Cardigan for Women

While updating my website, I realized that the five designs I mentioned in my last post were not the only ones that I have not yet blogged about. Add to those the Plumage Wrap and Zephirine Cardigan (both from Interweave Knits Spring 2014), AND several of my self-published designs: the Amphorae Shawl, the Nerodia Cardigan for Women, and the Fiamma hot water bottle cover.

Since there are so many, I'm not going to go chronologically, but instead pick the one that I feel most like blogging about at this moment, and that is... the Nerodia Cardigan for Women.

Like the Nerodia Cardi for Babies and Children, I created this design in honor of the Chinese Year of the Snake (2013), and the repeat for the snake bodies is the same. I also used garter stitch edgings (pun intended) and snap closures for both. But after that, these designs diverge: on the version for women, the snakes adorn the yoke, not the lower body. In addition, two of the three snake heads overlap the other front and actually form part of the front closure, so I reworked those heads to be 3D (a fun part of the design process!). I also moved the tails, to make room for these heads to fit between them when the cardigan fronts are fastened.

The snake band is worked sideways for both cardis, with the two 3D snake heads added after the rest of the band stitches have been bound off. Stitches for the body are then picked up from the long edge of the band, but unlike the Baby/Child version, the body and sleeves are worked down (body flat, and sleeves in the round). Decreases shape the curved front hems. For the upper yoke, stitches are picked up from the other long edge of the snake band, and rapid decreases follow the contours of the shoulders, ending in a garter stitch neckband. The front and hem edging is added in finishing, and snap closures are sewn on (you can see them in the above photo). And don't forget the snake eyes and tongues!  

I really love the Madelinetosh Tosh DK yarn I used for this project; it's a pleasure to knit with and holds up well, and the Filigree colorway, a lightly variegated mix of greens, golds and a bit of blue, is a wonderful match for the design. In fact, after this colorway was chosen for the Arc & Line Cowl in knit.wear Fall 2012, I liked it so much that I used it again (held doubled) for the Rockweed Cowl.

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Nerodia Cardigan for Babies and Children

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MacMahan Collection of cowl patterns

 

 Just in time for holiday knitting, the MacMahan Collection of three cowl patterns is now available! In late September I spent a weekend on MacMahan Island, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and in the company of three of my college roommates (but that's another story!). The cowls in this collection were inspired by the island's rugged coastline.

The Boothbay cowl is worked in the round from the top down, and uses a variation of the feather-and-fan lace stitch pattern (minus purl ridges) to suggest gently rippling waters. Increases and ribbing shape the cowl so that it flares slightly at the bottom, and narrows at the top; increases are carefully set up so that the ribbing flows nicely into the main stitch pattern. For this cowl I used Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky, worked on US size 9 needles, in the "Well Water" colorway, a lightly variegated spectrum of steely blues that nicely suggests the ocean's surface on an overcast day (unfortunately, the sun showed itself for a total of about 10 minutes that whole weekend--no exaggeration!).

The Rockweed cowl is named after a type of brown seaweed which is ubiquitous in that area of Maine. Also known as bladder wrack, the clumps of rockweed I saw were not just brown, but also included a wide range of other hues, from olive to pistachio to gold-- a color spectrum almost perfectly captured by Madelinetosh colorway "Filigree." And when I found the stitch pattern “vines and eyelet rib,” in the Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume 1, its waves and and eyelets reminded me, not of vines, but of clumps of rockweed. I modified the stitch pattern by removing the columns of faggoting, making the fabric warmer and denser (yet leaving the appearance of the stitch pattern virtually unchanged). Madelinetosh Tosh DK yarn is held doubled for this cowl, which is worked in the round with self-finished edges.

Finally, the Schist cowl was inspired by the rocky ledges along the island's coast (formed largely of, yes, schist). To create the layered look of this cowl, I experimented with different combinations of knit and purl stitches, finally hitting upon a pattern of wide, shallow knit/purl triangles that creates natural folds. This cowl is knit flat and sideways, and then seamed; the pattern gives directions for a provisional cast on, so that the seaming can be done via three-needle bind off, but a conventional cast on and seaming technique could easily be substituted.

Madelinetosh Tosh DK yarn was also used doubled for this cowl; the "Whiskers" colorway, a combination of different shades of beige and light taupe, suggests the color variations in the sections of rocky coastline which lie above the high tide mark.

The Boothbay and Rockweed cowls each use less than a skein of yarn, and the Schist cowl uses just about one skein; all three work up quickly, with a difficulty level of advanced beginner. The collection is priced at $7.00 for the trio of patterns, and includes both written directions and charts for all three. Cowl patterns are also available individually, for $3.50 each.