Auditions and callbacks

I’ve been doing a fair bit of mental noodling about Campbell’s Aran sweater, now that the yarn is ready. As always, there are some considerations that will inform my design choices. Conferring with my client, we arrived at the following for the basic silhouette:

Garment Silhouette

As you can see, it’s pretty traditional, with Campbell’s favorite elements included to personalize it. Specifically, he requested shoulder saddles and a shawl collar. It wasn’t till I sat down to sketch it that I realized: I don’t think I’ve ever seen shoulder saddles and a shawl collar on the same sweater. There’s no reason not to do it - I just think it’s a bit uncommon. So is Campbell, though, so there you have it.

Design Elements

Of course, if there are shoulder saddles, I insist that they continue all the way down the sleeves and into the cuffs. Because if it’s not sexy, why bother? Also sexy is when the body cables extend down into the lower edge treatment, through careful planning. Add that one to my list of requirements. There may or may not be a closure of some sort where the collar overlaps. We shall see, but you know me: If there’s a place to put a button, buckle or tie, I’ll find it.

Cable Styles

Cam also had some opinions about the styles of cables he likes: Honeycombs and twists more than geometrics and braids. And finally, we agreed that I could add some special motifs that would be secret messages to him from his mom, but that they would be somewhat hidden, in panels at the sides. More to come on the secret message motifs!

Construction (knitter’s safety)

Before losing my heart to any particular cable(s), I wanted to sort out some construction details. I *MAY* have mentioned that this will be a big sweater. And by “big” I mean “as seen from space”. The amount of fabric in it will require some structural support. For that, I’ll be relying on seams.

At first the idea of seams made me sad, as I prefer to work circularly whenever I can. But on reflection, I realized that swinging a 56-inch sweater around in circles is actually much more work, physically, than working the pieces one at a time. Aside from eliminating seam-sewing, the main advantage to knitting in the round is that you don’t have to work wrong-side (purl) rows. But while that’s true for stockinette knitting, cable knitting has just as many purl stitches on the front as the back side of the work. Knitting separate pieces will also work well for bottom-up construction. I’m choosing that this time so I won’t have to reverse-chart any cables, which can be an adventure/aneurysm.

Another thing I’m thinking about is the cable(s) I’ll choose for those shoulder straps. Yes, they’re dreamy, but they also have to support the weight of the entire sweater. I’m leaning toward something dense, without too many rows between crosses. Otherwise they might stretch laterally, allowing the whole garment to drag out of shape.

In addition the construction, I’m considering scale. I started shopping for cables in my stitch dictionaries with an eye to the sizes, as well as the styles. I’ve got a lot of blank space to fill, without using too many different cables, and without having to repeat elements too frequently. While I will use varied widths, I want the effect to be proportionate to the garment as a whole.

Swatching

With all those ideas in place, I shopped just about every book about cables that I own. Once I found the contenders, I swatched. A. LOT. The paper tags in the photos below are to remind me where I found each chart, and of its stitch count, row count and measurements. Swatching each element and laying them out in order is the best way for me to predict how they will fit and measure together in the actual sweater. I’m sure there are knitters who can accomplish this using math, but I’m not one of them.

This one’s a clear winner for the center front panel. It needs borders on either side to keep it company though.

I remembered this little number from a different book. Its row count is perfect, and there’s a lovely reverse of it for the other side (didn’t bother swatching the reverse). And then I added a wee 4-st twist to border the works and divide it from the next panel:

Which will be Cam’s requested Honeycomb. It took a few tries to get a width I like but I love it juxtaposed with the rope-y center twist. Bonus: it’s un-thinky to knit, and the row count also works well with its neighbors.

And now for the important stabilizing shoulder saddles. I like this firm plait for the job. I can also easily widen it if need be.

Here’s a combo I made up to border the shoulder saddle. I don’t love it yet and still need to try again. Adjacent to that is the filler stitch I’ll be using throughout: Mini Honeycomb. It’s fun to knit (no cable needle required!) and the fabric is both fluffy and flexible. I’m a fan.

This is the swatch collection (only those making the first cut - there are MANY others I deemed not groovy) so far. On the left are some contenders for the “secret message” side panels…To be continued.

So that’s the state of Campbell’s Aran at the moment. How do you like to plan your cables, Gentle Readers? Please share your process in the comments!

Once Upon A Sweater Vest

As we all know, it’s a rare piece whose maker can say is the best example of all things. Nor should it be, because that’s too much pressure to put on mere mortals with string.

But there are some knitted things which serve as useful examples of certain concepts.

This is one such garment. Flower of Nepal is a little sweater vest I knocked out to wear on tv once, when I learned there are colors and silhouettes that cameras hate. There was little time to spare (surprise) and even less yarn (natch), but lunatic that I am, I elected to knit something new. I used the opportunity/challenge to bang out a vest, with several experimental elements. I didn’t bother to write down any pattern notes, thinking that I wouldn’t need or want to publish the design. Given the unreasonable timeframe (about a week), I would be lucky to get a garment at all, never mind one worthy of the full “pattern-I’m-going-to-sell” treatment.

But it ended up that I quite liked the little vest. Some of the things I tried out on it were successful enough that I began to include it in my sample collection. I only showed it to my steeks students, and usually not on their first introduction to my circus: It’s a little bit thinky for the uninitiated. But for my experienced/returning students (Repeat Offenders), it’s a useful example of some advanced ideas. To wit :

1. The power of knitted hems to both display repeated motifs and add structure to an otherwise simple shape

2. The magic of shaping adjacent to cuts in knitted fabric (a cornerstone of my Shapely, Sexy Steeks class)

3. What happens when sock yarn can becomes a garment, with certain yarn characteristics accounted/adjusted for

A funny thing happened when the students got to play with it: They touched it, they tried it on, they liked its simplicity and ingenuity. They wanted the pattern. And by “wanted” I mean “suggested assertively that I get busy and make it happen, already”. I tried to argue that there were enough things I didn’t like about the vest that it wasn’t appropriate for public consumption. That while a useful example for class, it had elements which limit its knitability/wearability/appeal, and would have to be completely reworked. That its stash-dive yarn combo could not be reliably replicated by knitters.

My protestations were dismissed.

After a few repetitions of this exercise, I understood that resistance is futile. Like everything in knitting, it only hurts worse if you struggle. I pledged to rework the whole design, not just as a canvas for techniques, but as a carefully crafted and sized garment. One that would be both fun to knit and beautiful to wear. In short, one that is worthy of my knitters.

But the yarn problem remained: How could I replicate the strange and unusual color combination? What yarnmaker would sign up for such folly?

Enter the lovely and talented Kerry Graber of Jorstad Creek. Without trepidation, she took my little vest to her studio and worked all manner of magic. She chose the perfect base, and waved her wand over simmering cauldrons of color until she manifested this:

Did you ever? Me neither. Stunning doesn’t begin to describe it.

Once I had these gorgeous jewels in hand, I set about reworking the design. Stay tuned to see the process of how I reverse-engineered my creation for you, Gentle Readers. I think you’ll enjoy the ride.

Shapely, Sexy Steeks

You may have heard that is possible to grow a human ear on the back of a mouse. So obviously, in my head, this translates directly to knitting. What if I grew a sleeve on the side of a body tube?

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not

When we knit with steeks, an enormous world opens up with regard to how we create the parts of garments. For example: What if my new Fana sweater were equal parts green with white, and white with green, in a color blocked arrangement? Something like this:

Cardigan by Gudrun Sjoden

I need some sweater parts in both color arrangements, notably left body tube, right body tube, left sleeve and right sleeve. The reversed charts are like this:

And here’s a little sketch for how the color placement might look:

Stay with me now; it’s about to get thinky. Let’s say I want to knit a round where the chart colors reverse in the middle of the round. Each time there’s a single-color round (lots of times in a striped Fana), I’d have to physically switch yarn sources in order to have the proper strand in place when I come back to it in the round. That’s intarsia, which we all know is a Dark Art.

Nope.

Instead, I can make two tubes of knitting; one in each of the color configurations. Each of my tubes will become one half of the body, and one sleeve, once I cut them apart.

The sleeve needs to be longer than the body, so I started it first. Then I cast on more stitches for 1/2 of the body tube with some waste yarn, and joined the round with steek stitches on either side of the sleeve. As I work away, I can decide on the exact sleeve shaping. Since I’m just knitting sweater pieces, which happen to be conjoined, I can make specific decisions about the way each piece is shaped as I go.

About halfway along the first sleeve, I’ve decided I want gathers up at its cap. For that I’ll need more sleeve width, so I’ll start increasing at shorter intervals now. All the while, I’m also making half of the body tube with every round. The body tube halves don’t need any shaping in this case, so they’re just straight-sided cylinders. If the finished garment needed bust darts or waist shaping, though, I could easily also work them on that half of the piece.

For more ideas about sexy knitting engineered by adding steeks, join me online for a thought exercise/adventure! We’ll explore knitted construction that is shaped with the strategic placement of cuts, and I’ll help you understand how to plan them. Oh, and you get to make this super cute thing:

Sign up HERE, and imagine your knitting in a completely new way.