Add Chevron Stripes to a Sweet Vintage Sweater

You probably know by now that I am really trying to use my yarn stash, and that I have a lot of odd balls that don’t necessarily easily make a garment on their own. I’ve been thinking about just going through my stash from one end to the other and making myself use whatever I find, but I also love big projects that can use a lot of stash, and different colors of stash, all at once.

That’s a great thing about the Vintage & Variety sweater from Caitlyn Turowksi. This worsted/aran weight pullover is worked in a colorwork chevron stripe pattern, with raglan sleeves and a V-neck worked from the top down.

You can make it with as many or as few different colors as you want. Make it a sort of retro rainbow as shown, or use all your stash of a single color to make an ombre effect.The pattern page shows the design worked in three colors or 12 colors, and you could do something in between by repeating some of the colors more or less often if you want.

There’s also an option for working it in a single color, which would make the chevron really subtle but would still be fun to knit.

This is one where you’ll want to look through all the different projects on the pattern page on Ravelry if you can to see if the colors other people used spark any ideas for what you can pull out of your stash to work with.

The pattern come sin nine sizes, with a finished bust measurement ranging from 32 to 64 inches, or 80 to 160 cm. You can decide how much ease you want; the three-color version in the project notes has no ease, while this colorful version is a little more relaxed.

As you might have guessed, you can find the pattern on Ravelry.

[Photo: Caitlyn Turowski]

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Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

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