The Eleven Twelve Sweater is a Lesson in Customizing Knits

I love it when designers have a lot of different test knitters for projects and give them free reign to play with their designs. You end up with a wealth of variations that can be really inspiring to the rest of us knitters.

A great example of that is the Eleven Twelve sweater from Tina Tse. It’s a pretty straightforward top-down, circular yoke sweater that uses a textured slip stitch stripe pattern.

If you look through the photos on the Ravelry project page you’ll see so many different options for what’s sure to become a favorite sweater. There are some who chose a rather neutral color scheme, while others went bold. There are long sleeved and mid-length sleeve variations.

One even used scraps of yarn to make stripes of many colors instead of using a single contrasting color, which is a great tip for people looking to pare down their stashes — more color is always OK!

The design is worked in sock yarn and comes in 10 sizes. You can use her pay what you can model if the suggested price of $12 isn’t feasible for you.

[Photo: Tina Tse.]

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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