Floriston

©2013 twistcollective.com; photography: Jane Heller

I know it sounds funny, but I do a lot of designing on my bicycle. I live in a mountainous place, and no matter where I ride, there are always hills and more hills. To keep myself from thinking about my legs on those endless climbs, I pass the time working out the details of new designs.

On some rides last summer it was a cardigan design that kept me diverted. The idea was to create a modern shape that would skim the figure and be easy to wear, but with a bit of elegance…something feminine, but not girly…with lace details, but a geometric motif rather than a floral one…on and on it went, to the top of the hill.

The result is Floriston, just out in Twist Collective's Spring 2013 issue. It's an airy, open-front cardigan with clean lines and a little surprise – a sweet inverted pleat at the back.

©2013 twistcollective.com; photography: Jane Heller

Some more details:

• A wavy eyelet-and-rib pattern forms the cardigan's front bands and is repeated on the inside of the pleat.
• A bit of waist shaping keeps the silhouette sleek.
• The sweater fronts widen slightly at the bottom for some subtle draping without an excess of fabric.
• The bracelet-length sleeves have a little vent detail that echoes the back pleat.
• The sleeves and hem have a crisp I-cord edging.

I love the way that Twist styled the photos of Floriston. The model has such grace and charm, and that floral-print skirt is adorable. But I'm not a very girly girl, so when I had one made for me, I indulged in a lovely charcoal grey. So far I've only worn it with jeans and a tank, but I'd also wear it with some dressier ankle-length pants and short boots, or with a slim sheath dress. Pretty sure I'll steer clear of the bike shorts, though.

Green delirium

I've been able to indulge in a little knitting for myself lately, in between other projects. Here's one sweater recently finished: Meris, knit in Quince and Co.'s Finch in the Snap Pea color.

This green just fills me with joy. When I saw it on the shade card, I worried that it might be too intense. As a check, I ordered two skeins of Snap Pea, plus two skeins each of two ‘safer’ colors. (With that yardage I can always make a scarf or shawlette with the extra yarn.) Then I wore them around my neck and solicited opinions. Snap Pea was the clear winner.

In a yarn shop I often find myself drawn to semi-solid and tonally dyed yarns. In the skein, solid colors often don't look quite as enticing. But when knit up into a garment there is something so pleasing about a pure swath of solid, gorgeous color – and there's nothing like it for showing off your stitches.

Tenaya: It's the details

Photo: ©2012 Carrie Bostick Hoge

I admit it: I'm a geek. While most knitters look upon swatching as a dreaded ordeal, I can't wait to dive in. I love swatching up a new stitch I've found in a stitch dictionary, imagining how it can be made to work in some garment or other I'm thinking of. Even better is working out my own unique lace or cable pattern. But best of all is when I have to engineer or re-engineer some detail, figuring out how to get the fabric to do what I want it to do.

With Tenaya, the top-down set-in sleeve cardigan I designed for Twist Collective's Fall 2012 issue, I had an awfully good time. The cable pattern is one that I'd been fooling around with for a while. It's an asymmetrical three-stranded open braid that is mirrored on the fronts and back of the cardigan. Nothing complicated, but the asymmetry keeps it entertaining.

The seed stitch that adds such a rich texture to the button bands and neckband provided me with some fun engineering opportunities as well. I find that the edges of most buttonholes, especially the one-row type, can look rather sloppy. They look even worse when worked on a seed stitch ground. For Tenaya, I tinkered with the two-row style of buttonhole, finessing the methods of binding off and casting on stitches until I found a way to produce crisp, clean, square edges.

The main challenge with the neckband was how to decrease the circumference without interrupting the seed stitch pattern. The faux I-cord that begins the band and the real I-cord that binds it off gave me some places to stash decreases invisibly. And I love the way that those edges echo the slipped-stitch ribs that separate the cable and eyelet panels on the fronts and back.

Meris

Photos: ©2012 Carrie Bostick Hoge

I love top-down sweater construction. It’s the best way to ensure that the garment you are putting so much work into is really going to fit. Most top-down sweaters are made using either the raglan method or the circular yoke. Both of these are easy and intuitive construction styles: You cast on the number of stitches you want for the neck, then increase quickly until the work is large enough to fit around your shoulders, and carry on from there. The drawback to these methods is that their shaping does not flatter all body types.

Because its increases happen at just 4 points, raglan shaping creates diagonal style lines that run from underarm to neckline. If you happen to have wide shoulders (like me), these diagonals can really enhance the linebacker look.

In a circular yoke design, the increases are worked evenly across the round or row. This creates something of a conical shape that can make the shoulders appear rounded. And, unless short rows are worked to raise the back of the neck (not always possible in a patterned design), a yoked sweater tends to slip backwards on the body.

For overall looks and wearability, I prefer the styling of a classic, bottom-up, set-in sleeve design. This type of sweater looks great on most people because it emphasizes the lines of the wearer’s body, rather than creating style lines that run counter to the human form. But getting the right fit when working from the bottom up is not always easy.

In designing Meris, I’ve used classic set-in sleeve styling — but turned it on it’s head — creating a seamless cardigan with a clean, tailored look that can be customized as you knit. And by first fitting the sweater to the frame of your shoulders you can see immediately where adjustments need to be made for your own shape.

The cardigan begins with two separate shoulder pieces that are shaped with simple short rows, then joined to form the upper back. The fronts are picked up from the back’s cast-on edges and worked to the underarms. Fronts and back are then joined and worked in one piece to the hem. The sleeves are set in seamlessly from the top, their caps shaped with short rows for a great fit.

Meris is intended to have a close fit through the shoulders and bust and a bit of figure-skimming ease through the waist and hips, making for a streamlined, flattering shape. Simple, modern lace details add interest to the design, a fair bit of stretch to the fitted shape, and a lot of entertainment value for the knitter.

And then there’s the Finch.

This is the second design I’ve done using Quince & Co.’s yummy fingering weight yarn, and I’m just as enamored of it as I was the first time. Soft and smooth, Finch is a joy to knit with. It renders details crisply, and makes a lovely and even stockinette fabric.

Meris KAL

A knitalong for Meris will be starting July 9th in the Quince & Co. Ravelry group. Come join in!