Textured Tunic Mk II

October 2010

Around this time last year I made this christmas present as a trial run for the Textured Tunic I was thinking of making for myself. I loved the design, as with so much of Stefanie Japel's work, but I was a bit worried that it might not suit me too well. High necklines can be a bit hit and miss if you're shaped like I am.

Quite why it's taken me nearly a year to make version 2 is unclear to me - all I can put it down to is that there's so many delicious patterns out there that to make the same one twice over seems a bit of a pity. Still, when you end up with something as wearable as this, it's definitely worthwhile.

In making this version I did modify the pattern quite a bit. My version is shorter than it ought to be, and has neither the button-up seed stitch panels at each side of the hem nor the keyhole button-up detail at the neckline. They are pretty details, but there's only so much of my bra I can show off before I start to feel a bit self-conscious.

I expanded the box-stitch band so that it reached the bottom of my chest, and then went straight into some fairly pronounced waist shaping (4 decreases per round every 5th round 4 times over, 5 rounds even and then increased back up again).

This yarn is recycled from Francis Revisited which I frogged purely because it was getting much too big around the hips, and the cowl made it so warm that it didn't get worn very much. Because Francis seemed to grow a bit over time, I've made this a fairly snug fit to begin with. There's something very satisfying about turning one jumper into another.

Pattern: Textured Tunic by Stefanie Japel from Fitted Knits

Yarn: Sirdar Peru Naturals

Amount: Approx 7 skeins

Colourway: Machu Picchu

Needles: 6.00mm

Size: Smallest

On ravelry: here

Seamless Hybrid

September 2010

The only way to truly appreciate the god-like genius of Elizabeth Zimmermann is to make one of her garments for yourself. And then another. And another. And another...

I mean, just look at this. Look at the way the stitches running horizontally across the body joint the ones running vertically across the shoulders. It looks like a seam, but it's not, it's two separate pieces being joined together with slip-slip-knits and purl2togs. It's something very difficult to visualise until you come to do it, and at that point if you're not taking your metaphorical hat off to Elizabeth Zimmermann as you go, you're probably doing it wrong.

The only caveat really is that Elizabeth Zimmermann's directions are always a little on the informal and minimalist side, so unless you have a bit of experience or are especially daring, it could be easy to end up feeling a bit lost.

For this sweater, she gives detailed instructions for one size and one gauge only, and if you're intending to depart from either you will need to get the calculator out. In fairness her style is very sensible and encouraging, but as others have pointed out, she writes recipes rather than patterns.

Having said that, this was designed in the 1970s, and it's still hard to find a more appealing or well fitting design for a man's sweater. We used some Cascade 200 Heathers in a dark olive green with acid green almost mustardy heathery bits. It's beautiful. And since this project used about 6.5 hanks, the overall cost was in the region of £33.00.

The waistband and cuffs are lined with a pale grey shade of Debbie Bliss' Cashmerino Aran, as I had half a skein of it going begging. The neckband is a simple 1 inch of 1x1 ribbing cast off tubularly. There's a full write up of the technical bits and bobs on my ravelry page, although as this is a custom-fit, how useful it will be remains to be seen.

Pattern: Seamless Hybrid with Shirt Collar by Elizabeth Zimmermann

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers

Amount: 6.5 skeins

Colourway: 9448 Green

Needles: 4.00mm

Size: Custom (approx. 46" chest)

On ravelry: here

Susie's Reading Mitts

September 2010

So I needed to make a gauge swatch for a sweater which is to be knitted in the round. Maggie Righetti has an ingenious method for doing just that* but to a simple creature like me, the obvious solution seemed to be to make something small and tubular, such as these.

The picot edging is achieved through making a series of eyelets and then folding them in half and making a seam. That was a first for me, and it works very well with mittens, which need to fit snugly around the wrist and fingers.

Cascade 220 isn't all that widely available in the UK, but ravelry has more projects made from this yarn than any other. I absolutely loved using it.

*The main factor which makes in the round tension differ from knit flat tension is the fact that with flat knitting you are required to work on the wrong side of the fabric as well as the right side. In stocking stitch this translates into having to purl every other row, and apparently few people have the same tension purling as they do knitting.

To circumvent this, one option is to make a flat tension square knitting every row (which gives you garter stitch) and measure the gauge of that reassuring yourself that had you been knitting in the round all along it would have come out as stocking stitch. Which is true, but there's something about that technique which makes me uncomfortable, and besides it's not easy to measure tension over garter stitch.

Maggie Righetti suggests using a circular needle to make the tension square flat and after knitting the first row rather than turning it, breaking the yarn, pushing the stitches back to the other end, joining the yarn back in again and knitting across again, into the front of the square. And so on until it's a useful size. I haven't tried this yet, but it struck me as very very clever indeed.

Pattern: Susie's Reading Mitts by Janelle Masters

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers

Amount: 1 skein

Colourway: 9448 Green

Needles: 3.75mm

Size: Medium

On ravelry: here

Amory

September 2010

I don't know if I'm alone in this, but I have a real habit of trying to reverse engineer stuff, especially when it comes to knitwear. Amory, with its sideways-knit trim and short-row shaping had me baffled, though, and so the only option was to follow the pattern and see how it was done.

This time the catalyst came in the form of a sale of Sublime Soya Cotton dk at Kemps - something I figured would do just as well for this, especially since the intended yarn, Rowan Bamboo Soft seems to get quite a bad press.

Oh, and the Sexy Knitters' Club was having a Kim Hargreaves knit along, and I still haven't finished my 12 sweaters for 2010, so...

Pattern: Amory by Kim Hargreaves from the Dark House Collection

Yarn: Sublime Soya Cotton dk

Amount: 10 skeins

Colourway: 080 Indigo

Needles: 3.25mm

Size: XS

On ravelry: here

Haven

August 2010

My knitting for other people drive continues apace with this, my sister's Christmas present, and the third pattern I've completed from Kim Hargreaves very lovely book, Heartfelt (the others being Calm and Emily).

It was a Kim Hargreaves themed knitalong of the Official Sexy Knitters' Club which finally inspired me to get on with this pattern, but I've had an eye on it for ages, because I'm a sucker for lace. Particularly in a chunky, dark yarn like this one.

As this was a Christmas present, I decided that that gave me an excuse to use a real high-end yarn (the fact that I had been wanting to try it for months is by the by) - Malabrigo Merino Worsted. Softer than butter and an absolute delight.

About 80% of this was knitted in the car on a round trip from York to Oxford for a wedding. It's a long way from York to Oxford, but I wasn't sick once...

Pattern: Haven by Kim Hargreaves from the Dark House Collection

Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted

Amount: 2 skeins

Colourway: Oilive

Needles: 5.50mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

Montego Bay

August 2010

Rowan Purelife Revive is a yarn made out of recycled clothes, which is such an intriguing idea, I jumped at the first opportunity to try it. My sister in law's birthday, as it turns out.

Being predominantly composed of silk and cotton, it's a definite summer yarn with a great weight and drape to it. This pale brown colourway is shot through with strands of all sort of unexpected colours - turquoise, black, navy blue and dark red - which made it a joy to knit with.

I love the end result too. When I cast on for this project, inspired by various lovely version on ravelry, I wasn't really feeling it at first, and I wondered if I'd just been seduced by good photography. I'm glad I persevered, though - once it got long enough to wrap around my neck as I knit (I'm not the only one who does that, am I?) I started to realise how pretty it was.

Three skeins gave me a scarf about 5" shorter than the pattern intended (it was written for Handmaiden Fine Yarn Sea Silk), but long enough by my standards. 35 stitches across seemed to make a sensible width. As it came so close to the wire I was very glad I cut the strands to make both sets of tassels from the beginning of the third skein before joining it in and finishing off the scarf. I only had a yard or so left over.

The scarf also rolls in on itself to make a tube, as the pattern itself warns you. There's no point fighting it, and it's by no means a serious issue, but it was nice to be forewarned.

Pattern: Montego Bay by Amy R. Singer from Interweave Knits Summer 2007

Yarn: Rowan Purelife Revive

Amount: 3 skeins

Colourway: 462 Basalt

Needles: 4.00mm

Size: One size

On ravelry: here

Cricket Sweater

August 2010

This is my Dad's Christmas present, and I can't remember the last time I felt so proud of one of my FOs. Primarily because it was so time consuming, but in the end I think the hard work paid off.

If you've a tendency to rush finishing like I do, it's great to make something for someone else now and then, because it forces you to be extra neat and not fudge bits, which is great discipline.

I used Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk for this, rather than the recommended Rowan Baby Alpaca dk, since the Sublime was on sale having been discontinued. I absolutely loved working with it, and I really wish I could justify buying another bagful. It's extremely soft everso pretty.

I did twist one of my cables back to front, but decided to leave it as it was, because it was on the back section, and it struck me as a rather nice way to prove this was hand made. I did something similar when I made a Central Park Hoodie for myself, so it's almost traditional now.

Pattern: Cricket Sweater by Wendy Baker from Rowan Knits for Him

Yarn: Sublime Organic Merino Wool dk (discontinued)

Amount: 15 skeins (MC) / 2 skeins (CC)

Colourway: 113 Twine (MC) / 118 Sailcloth (CC)

Needles: 3.00mm and 3.25mm

Size: 40"

On ravelry: here