Thursday 29 April 2010

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week - Thursday: A New Skill


Should I make this blog post about steeking? It does seem to offer itself very neatly but I did blog quite a bit about the rose coloured Elizabeth Zimmermann cardigan I made (using the pattern for The Green Sweater).

I think I should write about something else.


This is not too much 'something else' because I will also be steeking the front opening (ahem, forgot about the armhole steeking, I'll be doing those too). I wanted to make a colourwork cardigan but very quickly realised that knitting with two colours is very confusing when you need to purl - the strands of yarn keep getting in the way when turning the work to the wrong side.

That proved too frustrating an obstacle so I ripped back and decided to knit this in the round instead. Much easier! Now I've got to shoulder height but I hadn't known enough to allow for vertical steek lines. Thankfully I have enough stitches to work steeks anyway - I've kept on knitting this with hardly a change in the number of stitches on my needles! I think I should even be able to work a steeked seamline on a curve. To achieve a proper underarm shaping.

This is how far I got:



I could be wrong about the curved steeking, but by heck! I am going to try. Nothing ventured nothing gained. And if nothing is lost then you haven't learnt a thing either. The risk is well worth it. At worst I'll have to re-knit the section from the underarms up and have wasted some yarn. It is Diploma Gold 4 ply which is still readily available. I've even got plenty of yarn at home, I should be fine even if I have to re-knit a quarter of this.

The colour work pattern is from a German knitting magazine I bought over there last winter. I think the top was just called Wave Crest patterned cardigan (Wellenmusterpulli), I need to check.  I like the three rows when two colours are being used but I felt that only two rows of the single colour in between those sections was too short and way too much work - so I increased them to four rows. I think this makes the pattern look more even and not quite as busy. I don't follow the instructions for the garment itself, I am just using the colour work pattern.

I am not sure yet how to make the sleeves so that the pattern looks okay at the top of the arm where it meets the front and back. I may have to play around with this quite a bit. I'll see.

6 comments:

  1. Maybe you could just make single-colour sleeves, it would 'calm-down' the colour-work pattern some more... You're becoming the queen of steeking! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I made my waterloo Fairisle sweater this way over the last few weeks. I cut straight down from the shoulder for the depth of the sleeve. BUT I curved out a neckline. You can read about it on my blog. Good luck with yours.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I actually love the purl side of fair isle. I find it easier to maintain an even tension when I can see my floats right in front of me. Good luck with your curved steeking.

    Thanks for the great advice on steeking that you left on my blog!

    ReplyDelete
  4. what an interesting color pattern! and I think you're very adventurous to take on this challenge. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you everyone, much appreciated!
    Special thanks to Brenda: your blog post is the one thing I saw on curved steeking (so far) - it is that blog post that makes me think that I can try this with some chance of success! You're my motivation!
    I will definitely blog on how it went. Fingers crossed.

    ReplyDelete