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.

A new Millrace

Ever since the Millrace Scarf pattern came out last year I've been itching to use the same tip-to-tip construction and edging motifs in a shawl design. So here it is: the Millrace Shawl.

With a 14" depth at center back and a generous 76" overall width, Millrace stays nicely on the shoulders and can be styled in a lot of different ways. The shawl begins and ends with just 4 stitches. The garter stitch body and lace edging are worked all in one go, so there is no long cast-on or bind-off, and no stitches to pick up. And while the garter body makes the knitting fly along, the flowing lace motif provides just enough interest to keep it fun.

The sample is worked in Quince and Co. Tern in the Sea Grass color. Tern is a lovely yarn that marries 75% American wool with 25% silk for great stitch definition and beautiful drape. Perfect for this design.

Both Millrace patterns can be found in the Blue Bee Studio Ravelry store.

Norden revisited

For a while now I've been itching to cast on for a longer version of the Norden Cowl. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I was looking for a good travel project, and thought of Norden. It's a simple lace motif that fit the bill perfectly for not-fully-mindful knitting.

For this longer, lacier version I used fingering-weight Spirit Trail Fiberworks Sunna in Kismet. I doubled the number of repeats around the circumference, and worked one vertical repeat less. The finished cowl is about 46" around, and 5" tall. It used less than 200 yards of the lovely Sunna.

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.

Coleridge

©2012 Blue Bee Studio

When I discovered the peacock lace pattern that became the starting point for Coleridge, I was instantly smitten. The wonderful combination of knits and purls in the lace, plus tiny bobbles, adds up to a gorgeous fabric with a lot of dimension. But the symmetry of the motif has a certain formality to it, and I generally prefer patterns that have more movement and flow.

At first I tried to fight it. I worked out a couple versions of a crescent-shaped shawl using the peacock feather motif as an edging. But glomming it on to a curved shape seemed to undermine the strength of the pattern. Eventually I just gave in and and let the design be the rectangular shape it always wanted to be. Once I embraced the symmetry, I saw that by taking the original motif through several iterations, simplifying it until all that remains is a chevron-shaped pattern of eyelets traveling up wide ribs, a different type of rhythm and flow came about.

Coleridge is knit in two pieces, worked from each end and joined in the center. Instructions are given for two sizes – a single-skein scarf and a wider rectangular shawl. The pattern is written for fingering-weight yarn, but would work well with lace-weight, too.

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!

The Green Liesl

A few years ago, I discovered Ysolda Teague's Liesl pattern, and was immediately smitten. It's a genius design – a lacy, top-down cardigan that looks good on everyone, is easily adaptable to different yarn weights, and is simple enough that even a novice knitter can make a success of it.

Ysolda's design uses Feather and Fan lace throughout, creating a fabulously airy, rippled fabric. I made a couple of versions of the sweater. The first stayed pretty close to the original design, except that I suppressed the purl ridges in the body of the cardi, to keep a smoother line. The second Liesl that I made is featured today in the Modification Mondays section of designer Julie Crawford's blog.

The Green Liesl Pullover came about because I wanted a summery version of the sweater that retained the lacy details and the flow of the feather and fan, but that wouldn't need to be layered over another garment. To eliminate the peek-a-boo effect I changed the yarn-overs to backwards-loop m1s. This increase is nearly as fast to do as a yarn-over, and is a bit more open than some others, but it creates the opaque fabric I was looking for. Closing the holes also allowed for playing with stitch counts in the repeats to add bust and waist shaping.

I'm really pleased with the result. Casual and easy to throw on, the sweater still has the flair of the original design. And two years on, I'm still wearing it!

Millrace

Featured in Quince and Co.'s new Scarves, etc. e-book, Millrace is a long, slightly crescent-shaped scarf that begins and ends with just 4 stitches. The undulating lace border is worked at the same time as the stockinette body of the scarf. A twisted rib provides a visual transition between the two parts, and also serves as an aid in keeping track of increases and decreases in the stockinette portion of the scarf.

Like the rushing water it is named for, Millrace's lace edging keeps things moving along, enticing you to knit "just one more" repeat. It's an intuitive and entertaining knit.

The lovely Finch

I got a bit of a sneak peek at this yarn last fall, and couldn't wait to get my mitts on it. The latest addtion to Quince and co.'s lineup, Finch is a very biddable little 4-ply that renders stitches with a crisp, sculptural quality. It was perfect for this design, combining next-to-skin softness with wonderful stitch definition.

Seaweed and sand dollars

While I love knitting complicated lace, when it comes to wearing a lace shawl, sometimes simplicity wins out. Ebbtide is an elegantly simple shawl that dresses up or down equally well.

Worked from the top down, the pattern features waving bands of stockinette and feather and fan lace that show off tonal variations in semi-solid and tonally dyed yarns to great advantage.

Entertaining as the body of the shawl is to work, the real fun comes at the end – the feather and fan flows into a band of Sand Dollar lace, a gorgeous circular motif that gives Ebbtide a rather modern feel.

The Sand Dollar edging – a variation on Barbara Walker’s lovely Sunspots pattern – only looks complicated. It's surprisingly straightforward to work, and makes a stunning finish to the shawl.