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.

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?

Classic Dishcloth Knitting Patterns

Fall will be here before we know it, and that means there are holidays coming right behind where we might be entertaining at home. It’s always fun to have a hand knit touch in your home for other people to see, and if you’re going to be in the kitchen all day you might as well have some nice knit dish cloths to use. 

I love this little plaid hand towel from Darling Jadore. Use a little bit of leftover cotton yarn from another project for the plaid portion. It looks like the horizontal stripes are worked as you knit and the vertical stripes are done with duplicate stitch, making this a quick and easy project even newer knitters can make. 

Combine garter stitch and an easy eyelet pattern worked sideways to make the Annette Dish Towel from Cluck Cluck Boots, which is meant to be reminiscent of flour sack towels. It calls for DK weight yarn and you can work it in one color or two (or even three!). 

Add a little more texture with this set of kitchen towels from Whileberry Creative. They’re mostly worked in garter stitch with borders in easy knit/purl patterns, and you can work them in sport or worsted weight yarn. 

Two of Wands Shop has another cute allover knit and purl pattern they call the Seersucker Textured Tea Towel. It’s an easy repeating pattern worked in worsted weight yarn, and there’s a chart in the pattern you can use, but don’t have to, if you want to practice knitting from a chart. 

The Classic Cloth dish towel from Handmade Home by Connie is another one that can use a little leftover yarn in a contrasting color, or you could color block it our use stripes throughout the pattern. This one uses worsted weight yarn and another easy repeating knit purl stitch pattern. 

If you like to hang your towel on the oven handle or elsewhere but it’s always falling off, try the Stay Put kitchen towel from Fancy Step Knits. This project is worked in garter stitch and includes a hole partway through so you can pull the towel through itself over a rod or handle. Stripes are optional but a nice addition.