Knitting

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Growing A Better Knitter….

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daniSo one of my daughters decided she wanted this, from Nashua Handknits, City Streets Pattern Book from the Autumn 2008, Winter 2009 collection, but, and here’s the kicker, she wanted a cardigan, not a pullover.

How hard can it be? Just knit in a button band and we’re good to go right?

Wrong. As usual, I didn’t take into consideration everything when I went into my “pattern alteration” mode.

The sweater itself turned out beautiful, in a gorgeous bright blue, but, see the cable band across the shoulders? It’s too heavy to support itself since it wasn’t joined together.

Several options. I could “winch it up”, with a strand of yarn run up both sides of the front before I put on the buttons, but that resulted in a “bunchy” area, not very pretty. So, what I ended up doing is just sewing it back together and putting buttons up the front, just a if it were really a cardigan, but it’s not.

Looks great, she likes it, all is well, but I sure wish I could forsee these things!

What would you have done? (other than the obvious, duh, what did you think would happen when you left that much cable unsupported…)…

Looking for knitting patterns for knitted Cardigans? Check out these Knitting patterns we found on Etsy.

Looking for pullover and sweater patterns? Check these books out.

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Comments

  1. Wow, that is a heavy cable – so beautiful. Your “winching up” involved just sewing a single strand of yarn up to create some tension. The winching I’ve done involved crocheting a chain up the saggy part. This means that there are two strands of yarn doing the work. I’ve done this on neckbands, when the designer thought having a continuous neck to body stretch was great then the whole thing started sagging around the neck.
    On my sweater the sagging was vertical, so I crocheted a horizontal line about where the neckband should have been picked up if it weren’t continuous. I’m wondering if your winching could have been done in a star pattern following the lines of the sweater from the neck down to the bottom of that beautiful cable yoke. That’s what I would have tried. I’m glad your daughter was happy with your solution too.

Have you read?

A Blanket Knitting Pattern Where Yarn Selection is Everything

Many times when I write these posts I will say something like “you can use any yarn you want” or “this would be a great stash-busting project.” That’s just how my mind works. And my stash, too, since I probably have sweater quantity of two or three yarns at most, but tons of singles and odd balls and leftovers.

Blankets are generally a really good way to use up those bits, but in this case, I think you’re going to want to plan it out a bit better.

Looking at photos of the Color Study Blanket from Purl Soho, it looks like it’s made with two yarns held together, and that block in the center is worked with one of each color from the adjoining sides to make a mixed up color.

But that’s not actually how it’s done. This is three separate colors (four, really, with the neutrals in the corners) chosen form a yarn with an expansive palette so they play off each other. The project calls for a worsted weight superwash wool, which is a great choice for a blanket that’s both warm and washable.

This pattern was originally designed by Laura Ferguson and was updated by Hiromi Glover. It is worked in one piece in garter stitch intarsia, which is a great way to learn the intarsia technique if you don’t already know it. It comes in crib or throw sizes.

Despite the introduction to this post, I am going to go ahead and say that, yes, of course you could do this blanket with scraps or odd balls or even just choose five colors that don’t blend together so easily. But I really do love the look of the color play, and I think it would be worth your time to find colors that play well together to get a similar effect.

This pattern is available for free from Purl Soho.

[Photo: Purl Soho]