The yarn is the blue faced leicester double knitting that I was supposed to be dying dark purple but it went variagated thanks to excess vinegar in the dye bath. I've cast on multiple swatches for at least four different patterns without managing to meet the gauge I needed. So I figured the only way this would get knitted up would be to knit it top down with my actual gauge as the start point and I've chosen to create a heavily modified variant/sort of copy, of an existing pattern I saw a photo of on Ravelry.
The yarn wasn't dyed that evenly. I had some skeins that were considerably darker than others, but if life gives you lemons you make lemonade.... or in this case, sort the skeins from light to dark and knit the sweater by holding a dark and a light together, so you don't get stripes in places they don't belong. It seems to be working, I can't see the join, can you?
This is knit using the contiguous method which I've used before. The brainchild of SusieM over on Ravelry, this method is totally genius and involves almost no seams. And this week, thanks to the wonderful Britt over at Sneezerville http://sneezerville.com who put up the most fabulous tutorial/sweater recipe for contiguous designs based on her Seeli Cardigan pattern, I was able to dispense with the final hurdle which was standing between me and a totally and completely seamless turtleneck. Previously, I've had to pick up stitches around the neckline and knit on my collar. I'm not good at picking up stitches and haven't quite got the hang of shaping the neckline correctly for the turtleneck to be knitted onto. I've lost track of the number of necklines I've had to re-knit due to making the neckline the wrong size. Which is frustrating to say the least. Britt's genius method means I've cracked that final hurdle and what you see in the photo is a sweater that was cast on from the top of the turtleneck and knit downward with no seams at all. Not a one. Its seriously clever.
The original design was in Vogue knitting some years ago and is called Purl Ridges Pullover. I've only seen the photo and the original was knit in much finer yarn, with a turn over collar as far as I can tell. The original is more fitted than mine will be. The original is sleek and would fit well under a jacket for the office, wheras this one is kind of between an aran and a chunky weight with the yarn held double and is definitely an autumn sweater to be worn as a top layer. I will probably knit it quite long to go with leggings, definitely tunic length, possibly even mini-dress length if the yarn holds out.
The purl ridges are separated by three rows of stocking stitch on the collar and six rows of stocking stitch on the body. The original version has the purl stripes closer together near the waist and I will probably do the same. The sleeves will have the purl stripes six rows apart all the way down.
I cast this on Monday afternoon, it took two tries to get the collar to fit... but basically, all I've done this week is knit on this whenever I had chance.
3 comments:
Wow, a lot of work to get to that point. But sounds like it'll be a great piece when completed.(You have a lot of patience)
That's really impressive, your own jumper design, you must be really pleased. I love textured knits and yours looks like it's going to be really interesting, and a good match for your yarn too. It's so hard sometimes to find good patterns for the variegated stuff.
beautiful texture and the color is a perfect fit.
It seems strange to me, making a sweater this time of year. Its already 90F here, so anything but light cotton is out of the question for the next 4 months.
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