Fade Your Pattern with This Fun Sweater Knitting Pattern

I love the idea behind the Igneous Sweater from Knitting Expat Designs. We probably all know about the trend of fading yarns to produce an ombre effect or just to combine colors in a harmonious way in a project, but have you ever thought about “fading” the stitch pattern in a project?

That’s what she did in this design, and it’s really pretty cool. The pattern starts allover the bottom of the sweater and fades to Stockinette at the top. You could probably fade colors as you went, too, if you wanted, though the effect in a single semisolid yarn is nice, too.

The design comes in 14 sizes ranging from a chest measurement of 32 inches to 66.5 inches and was designed to have 4 or 5 inches of positive ease.

The base price on Ravelry is £10 but there are codes on the pattern page for a pay what works system. (You can also buy it on Etsy if Ravelry isn’t working for you right now.)

[Photo: Knitting Expat Designs.]

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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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