Fashion: Yarn Style

Stash Busting Extravaganza

 

Where does the mania for hoarding yarn come from? Is it some kind of hibernation instinct, to make sure you have enough soft, fuzzy wool to keep you warm during the winter months? Or is it the sheer impulse of letting yourself get swept away by the latest, greatest pattern you see, and having to have the yarn NOW? My most egregious stash-building seems to origin in the fear that my precious yarn will disappear forever. I have more Rowan’s 4-ply cotton and 4-ply soft yarn than I’d like to admit, since it was discontinued this year.

Even my cat hoards yarn! Look at him here. 

Bodhi steals balls of yarn from my stash and piles them in little stacks by his bed. Every time a new ball of yarn appears in my house, I find it sooner, or later, under his paw. 

I know that, secretly, he’s contemplating stealing the fuzzy skeins for his private stockpile.

 

Okay, I admit it, I have more yarn in my stash than Bodhi does. I did an inventory recently, and I discovered I have enough yarn in my stash to knit 14 sweaters. 14 sweaters! That’s a lot of yarn. I have just checked myself in to the stash-a-holics group on Ravelry, “stash down”. There’s a group there, called “Cold Sheep”, that commits to going a certain amount of months without buying more yarn. Wow—I didn’t realize yarn hoarding was so addictive!

 

One of my goals for next year will be to knit down as much of my stash as I can. I don’t think I would be happy going “Cold Sheep” for an entire year—part of the fun of knitting is the inspiration and creativity of devising a pattern for a garment that you will absolutely love, and knitting it for yourself, based on your fashion needs NOW. Or allowing yourself to be swept away by a gorgeous pattern designed by someone else on a whim. But since I did overspend my yarn budget this year, it seems only fitting that I devote a good part of my knitting to whittling down my stash in 2010.

 

How better to ensure I keep this commitment than by announcing it in a public forum? So, I here and now engage to knit the following projects next year:

 

1.    Sea Sweater with the divine Handmaiden seasilk yarn. Who knows, maybe I’ll finish it before 2010 rolls around, but I’m knitting yarn at a gage of 28 sts on size 2 needles. It’s a big project with tiny, tiny needles and yarn. So far I’ve finished the back and fronts and one of the sleeves, but now it’s time for my Christmas knitting to kick in.

 

2.    Darcy, by Kim Hargreaves, with the sublime Aurora 4 merino yarn in black. This sweater will be at the top of my to-do list for next year! Apparently, “Regency” style is super in right now, and what is more Regency-looking than this cardigan?

 

3.    Top-down Unpattern with set-in sleeves. I am just raring to get my hands on Karen Alfke’s new line of top-down unpatterns, which will be coming out early next year. I plan to use my yarn combination of kidsilk haze and rowan calmer, and I will trim the V-neck with matching beaded ribbon.

 

As soon as the pattern comes out, I'll jump in feet first on the unpattern with this scrumptious blue yarn!

4.   Slinky Ribs by Wendy Bernard, with recycled Cotton glacé. That Rowan yarn is darned expensive, and it deserved better than the square lace sweater, otherwise known as the “Walking Waffle” that I unraveled this year. 

      It’s taken quite a bit of time to unravel the sweater piece by piece, wind the yarn into skeins, wash it, hang it up to get the kinks out of the yarn, and then wind it new into balls, but I’m already halfway there. This sweater will be worth the wait.

 

5.   Rose by Kim Hargreaves, using Rowan kidsilk Haze and lurex shimmer. It’s surprising how few shells I actually own that I can wear underneath work blazers. I think this lovely V-neck shell will fit the bill. I am using the lurex shimmer I have saved from a disastrous attempt at knitting a metallic sweater, and the kidsilk night, a light mauve threaded through with metallic highlights, should harmonize with it perfectly. Sorry, I can't find a photo of the pattern in V-neck anywhere!

 

6.    Dorothee, by Louisa Harding, using Louisa Harding’s Merletto yarn. Could this 20's style sweater be any more glamorous? I bought this yarn for a total of $25 on sale, and it’s glimmer tempts me every time I walk into my knitting room

 

I’m already starting to feel a bit overwhelmed, so it’s time to stop for now. 6 projects using stash is a good commitment for now. You’ll hold me to my promise, right?

Readers of One Mind

Thank you to all my readers for your advice on the cowl-necked sweater I’m plotting for my unraveled cocoon yarn. The consent was unanimous that a cabled band around my middle would be highly unflattering, so I’ve abandoned that idea. One reader warned that I’d be creating a shelf for my girls to rest on, as if in a display window. Another reader voiced the concern that the band, knit in such thick, cabled yarn, would obscure my shape altogether. As a short-waisted person, I have to concede that the idea of a thick, “belt-like” design element at the waist will probably truncate my torso even more. My greatest fear is that of looking like a squat marshmallow in that white, fluffy yarn. So, by unanimous vote, the cabled band has been moved to the hip area, where it belongs!

It kind of amazes me that a variety of people with different styles will be unanimous in their idea of what looks good and what doesn’t on someone else. To me, that is the greatest benefit of participating in a network of creative people who are generous with their opinions. After watching Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, I realized I was in desperate need of a fashion stylist, and here you are, my blog readers, generously offering your advice to keep me from crossing the line into craft project knitting! If only I had had you guys in my corner years ago! I am certain you would have saved me from knitting things like this expensive lace project, which my readers have universally voted as unflattering:

Like my Coccoon sweater, the “walking waffle” has been reduced to its elemental state, ready to be transformed into a new, far more flattering project!

 

As you can see, Bodhi has his own plans for this lavender yarn.

Unravelry

 

Remember that $150 sweater that made me look like a sausage in a casing? Having accepted that I'm not 6'1, and 100 pounds like the model in the pattern photo, I've moved on from the glamour of the Rowan world. Instead of creating a sweater that shows off my cable knitting, I want a sweater that shows off ME!

It's time for the sweater deconstruction to begin!

Taking a sweater apart that took me a month to knit is hardly my favorite thing to do. The worst part is digging out those little thread ends. But I paid $150 for that fancy Rowan cocoon yarn!!! I’m determined, by hook or by crook, to get a wearable sweater out of it. Besides, I need a really warm sweater that I can wear to Montana, where I’m going to be spending New Year's Eve on my father’s 30-acre property on the edge of a National Forest.

 There’s a herd of wild antelope that lives nearby, and we’ve seen black bears, moose and wild turkeys there galore. I’m more than willing to shiver in zero minus temperatures if it means I can experience the beauty of that wild, mountain landscape.

I had originally planned to knit a Montana turtleneck using cocoon,

 since turtles are so popular this season. That was before I studied

 what necklines were suited to my face shape. Honestly, could 

anything make my face look more square than this style, which 

creates a virtual shelf for my chin to rest on?

 Ugh! Hideous!

Fleeing in horror from this image, I tried out a cowl neckline. Much

 better! The cowl draws the eye downward in a pleasing oval line,

 which balances out the square look of my face.

 I found a reasonable cowlnecked pattern on Ravelry that would fit my

 yarn, and started to get excited about the idea of knitting my cowl

 sweater from the top down. But then, when I actually took my sweater

 apart, I was struck by this beautiful design element:

 This lovely cable band is what attracted me to the original sweater I

 knitted in the first  place, so why waste it? I’m thinking of imitating the 

construction of Connie Chang Chinchio's  Tie-back shell.

 Her pattern starts with a waistband that you pick up stitches

 from and knit up. This cable band could be a fitted element that

 emphasizes my slim waist/underbust area, and then I could pick up

 stitches on either side, knitting the sweater up and down from there. I

 am hoping to end up with a practical sweater that will keep me warm

 and hopefully not entirely obscure my figure, in spite of its bulk. I will

 make it a cown-necked sweater with long sleeves. Who knows

 how this experiment will turn out? I’d love to hear feedback from

you on what you think! 

A Breakthrough Moment

 

The creative process is sometimes an act of pure faith. When you create something, you have to work in a vacuum, putting aside your fears that your inspiration will take you not quite far enough, and it will flop in the end. But that is part of the excitement of making anything truly new. My mosaic sweater excites me and terrifies me at the same time, because I’m designing it as I go along, and who knows how it will turn out? And what about all of those hours I am investing in this speculative enterprise?

 I truly had a once-in-a lifetime experience today that has validated an entire year’s worth of creative effort. Last year, I dedicated myself to writing a novel about the theft of Ancient Egyptian artifacts in Regency England. Writing a 435 page historical novel was challenging, but that was nothing compared to the labor of trying to bring it to the notice of the publishing community. After eleven months of trying to capture a literary agents’ attention, sending out queries, networking at conferences, pitching to strangers, today I actually got the call.

 

You know, the call. The kind of call that could change my solitary creative labor into something that might actually reach the public eye. A top literary agent in New York is interested in representing my novel, Secret Possessions. Wow. It was kind of stunning that after all of that hoping and planning and working, revising the book again and again, that finally someone has fallen in love with it. Excited doesn’t even begin to describe what I feel.

 

Getting a literary agent is only the first step towards getting published. But if you have a reputable agent, they have connections with editors in publishing houses, and they know what kinds of stories the editors like. I don’t know if my agent will be able to sell my book, but if he can’t, I don’t think anyone will. On the electrifying phone call I received today, he described my book, Secret Possessions, as the “Agatha Christie of Regency novels.” I was kind of blown away by that! And he is going to use those words to market my mystery romance to editors in January. Wow! In the meantime, I have to shorten the novel quite a bit, but I‘m not going to worry about that. This is like that moment when you have worked so hard putting all the pieces together of a hand-knitted project, sewing and blocking and assembling, and then you put it on and, viola, it has come together into something beautiful!

 

 

 

To Dart or Not to Dart?

 Several of my readers responded to my recent bust dart posts, asking whether or not it makes sense to add bust darts to your sweaters if you wear an A or B cup bra. I have heard conflicting opinions on this.

The advice I hear most often is that bust darts are not necessary. If there is a small difference between your rib cage measurement and your bust apex measurement, then just let the fabric stretch to make up the difference. Knitted fabric does tend to stretch a lot, and this seems like a reasonable argument.

 

Retro Sweater with no bust darts

I’m not sure I agree with it, though. I was a B-cup until I hit my mid 30s, so I have spent most of my life dressing for a more slender silhouette, all the way around. I experimented with a bunch of styles in my B-cup phase, and found that tops that had darts made all the difference in flattering my upper half. There was nothing more sexy than a fitted, crew-necked top with bust darts that conformed beautifully to my chest and, frankly, made the most of what I had.  It's the Katharine Hepburn look. She had a slight figure, and remember how sensational she always looked!  

As a B cup, high-necked tops were much more flattering for me, because they emphasized my upper bulk. And the elegantly-placed darts drew the eye to the lovely fit of my top in exactly the right place. J 

 

My wedding dress was an antique from the 1950's, and I chose it partly because of the flattering dart placement in the bodice:

The darts here, really emphasize the line of the bust, making it look larger than it actually is. This is back when I weighed much less than I do now, because I was dancing six hours a week! I needed all the extra curvature I could get. 

Knittingharpy shares this opinion about bust darts on her blog:

 

“Darts aren’t just for those blessed by much chest… I was designing a close-fitting worsted-weight cardigan (pattern’s currently in write-up mode). I wanted the cardigan to fit my curves, rather than occlude them, and since my curves are rather slight, it’s easy for them to hide under that kind of thick fabric. Then I remembered an old shirt I had, with bust darts. It fit me tightly through my torso, and the bust darts flared the bust out at exactly the right point, so that you could actually perceive that fundamental bust dimension– the difference in circumference between bust and underbust.”

 

In other words, bust darts can actually flatter a smaller chest, drawing attention to what you have instead of obscuring your curves in a heavy, shapeless fabric.

See knitting harpy’s entry here for an excellent discussion of bust darts:

http://knittingharpy.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/darts-the-easy-way/

 

I don’t think bust darts are necessary in the A & B range if you are knitting a loose, casual sweater. But if you are going for a tight-fitting, sexy look, it is my humble opinion that they can make all the difference!

 

For the most flattering styles of tops for A and B-cup figures, see this fantastic article, which details necklines, prints, and detailing that make a bust look fuller:

http://www.millionlooks.com/outfits/11-tips-making-small-bust-look-fuller/

There are so many fantastic sweater patterns out there that follow these rules for maximizing the bust:

• horizontal stripes

• ruffles, ruching, gathering

• lighter colors, small patterns on top

• high necklines

• halter tops

• tight-fitting tops that reveal sexy shoulders and arms

 

Trinny, the fashion makeover expert, has so many fabulous examples of sexy tops that make her look gorgeous, and that the busty Susannah could never wear.

 

Frankly, I think there are way more knitting patterns that you can

 find that flatter a small bust, than a large bust. How many

 patterns can you think of that use details across the chest? Tons!

 Compare that to the number of patterns that use bust darts and

 necklines that break up the bulk on the upper half? I can count the

 number I know of on one hand! As one of my readers commented,

 enjoy your slender silhouette while you can, as you may find you

 are blessed with more and more curves as you age, and then you

 have to strategize about how to fit them into your clothes! 

An Alternative to Designing your Own Sweaters

Unpattern Textured Vest by Karen Aflke

 

I felt a bit dizzy after reading through my notes on all the adaptations I made of Wendy Bernard’s pattern, Pink, in order to achieve Blue. I changed the gage, I added bust darts, waist shaping, and finished every edge of the garment differently from the pattern. It took quite a bit of puzzling to think through how to make all of these changes. Sometimes I wonder if working so hard to tamper with someone else’s design is really the best approach.

 

Blue

It would make much more sense for me just to have designed Blue from scratch, but I don’t have enough experience with top-down knitting yet to feel empowered to do that. This was just my second top-down project. If only there was a template or pattern guide that I could use to walk me through the steps of planning out a sweater for myself.

 

Enter Karen Alfke, knitting designer of the line, Unpatterns. These patterns are flexible templates that guide you through the process of designing your own sweater. Karen’s top down unpattern for a raglan sweater is the most popular, and she has several new unpatterns coming out early next year:

Top-down Raglan

 

There are six soon to be reavealed top-down Unpatterns:

• Set-In Sleeve Pullovers

• Set-In Sleeve Cardigans

• Raglan Pullovers

• Raglan Cardigans

• Sleeveless Pullovers

• Cardigan Vests

 

… and six bottom-up Unpatterns:

• Set-In Sleeve Pullovers

• Set-In Sleeve Cardigans

• Drop-Shoulder Pullovers

• Drop-Shoulder Cardigans

• Sleeveless Pullovers

• Cardigan Vests

 

Here are a few previews of Karen Aflke's upcoming unpatterns:

 

Top-down sleeveless shell

 

Top-down unpattern with set-in sleeves

 

These unpatterns allow you to design a garment suited to your unique measurements, and helps you with your calculations and decision making as you go along. The patterns “hold your hand,” so to speak, throughout the design process so that you don’t have to feel scared and alone. You can find Karen on Ravelry under the name, Akabini.

 

I met Karen in the wonderful class, Sweaters that Fit, which she teaches regularly at Stitches. Sorry, folks, her class at Stitches West this year is already sold out! Since not everyone can make it to Stitches, Karen has been kind enough to share the philosophy behind her line of Unpatterns:

 

Quote from Karen Alfke:

 

“Unpatterns really emerged because a friend asked me for my basic sock ‘recipe.’ My knitting family in Germany makes a great, all-over-ribbed sock, and at one point I’d jotted down on a slip of paper how many stitches for which gauge, and the shaping instructions written in a stitch-neutral language (like “take half your stitches and do this…” rather than “K12, slip 1…”).

 

In the fall of 1998, I was stalled on a book project, and during the creativity workshop I had enrolled in to help me get unstuck, the idea for Unpatterns came to me. Literally came to me, as a visual, in the shower (where all such great universal ‘downloads’ come, right?).

 

The Sock Unpattern was the first to be published, and basic garments soon followed. Most of the garment Unpatterns were worked the way my aunt had taught me: in the round as much as possible, without seams, and from the bottom up, on circular needles. Pullovers are worked as tubes, with separate panels for back and front emerging from the tube to be seamed together at the shoulders. Sleeves are picked up around the armhole opening and worked with evenly-spaced decrease rows down to the cuff. Eventually, I was also able to build in what I’d learned reading Barbara Walker’s great book, Knitting from the Top, into the Top-Down Unpattern, by far the biggest seller and the one I’ve taught from the most frequently in workshops and at conferences.

Unpatterns offer the knitter three things:

1) Freedom: to choose your own yarn, your own gauge, your own size, your own design elements

 

2) Flexibility: to accommodate your own body’s shape, or to incorporate that cool detail

 

3) An Education: in the basics of garment construction, which you can apply to the existing patterns you go on to knit, so that you can make adjustments to them for fit and sizing with confidence.

 

Unpatterns are available in yarn stores across the country. I am also happy to be a part of a web resource called Patternfish." 

www.patternfish.com

 

That was a quote from Karen Alfke. Stay tuned for a full interview with Karen, which I will be posting later this week.