Knit a Sweater That’s All About the Finishing Touches

I won’t say this sweater wouldn’t be pretty on its own, but the finishing embellishments on the Schickimicki pullover definitely take it to a different level.

The sweater, designed by Claudia Quintanilla of EweKnit Toronto, was knit with a luscious combination of a silk/mohair yarn and a merino/cashmere yarn. You can use a lace weight and a light fingering together, or a single strand of sport weight.

It’s a top down sweater that skims the body (it’s meant to be worn with 0-2 inches/0-5 cm of positive ease) and has loose sleeves that are cinched in at the wrist.

As I said it would probably be a lovely, a definitely a luxurious, sweater if that was the end of it, but that is far from the end of it.

The area around the neckline on the front of the sweater is playfully embellished with beads and flowers that I thought were buttons but they are actually made of leather. But you can go whatever way you want with this, adding embroidery, duplicate stitch, different kinds and colors of beads and baubles. I love a project where you can just play and you get to decide where it ends.

The pattern comes in eight sizes, with a finished chest measurement ranging from 31.5 to 58.5 inches, or 80 to 148 cm. The body is cropped but you can always add length if you want, just be aware of how the low amount of ease plays on different parts of the body (or add some increases if you need to make more space).

And if you’re wondering about the name, Schickimicki is German slang for things that are trendy, fancy and posh, which the details of this sweater most certainly are.

You can download the pattern from Ravelry or get a kit with just the yarn, yarn and beads, or yarn plus beads, ribbon and flowers, from EweKnit.

[Photo: Claudia Quintanilla/EweKnit Toronto]

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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.

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