As you readers know, I am a huge fan of Marie Wallin’s gorgeous colorwork. Her sweaters are masters of hue and pattern and I don't know how she achieves such extraordinary effects. What a creative genius she is, and how lucky we are to get to knit the textiles she invents! Unlike the model Georgia who shows off any shape of garment so beautifully, many of us who wear these knits are not over six feet and extremely thin. Some of us have bumps and curves that need to be accommodated in a knitted garment, and a loose-hanging cascade of fabric may only emphasize an unflattering impression. So I have decided this year to devote myself to applying a template to knitting Marie Wallin textile designs for those of us with curves. I wish to prove it is possible to incorporate gorgeous colorwork while wearing a fitted garment that flatters a curvy shape. And I am trying this with Nigella.
I fell in love with the Nigella design as soon as it appeared in Marie Wallin’s Meadow book. It is a very long tunic, without added shaping for the waist, hips, or bust. Later, Nigella was reimagined by Marie Wallin with a background of many alternating colors and renamed Aisling in Marie Wallin’s later book, Cherished. My knitting group decided to all knit Aisling together. It wasn’t just the complex colorwork charts but the shaping of the back, chest and sleeves that puzzled us immensely. In spite of the gorgeous fabric, knitters on Ravelry who had similar problems compared the sleeve size to “those of a clown” and echoed our issues with a large cowl shape that formed in the back due to extra fabric needed to keep the pattern motifs consistent all the way around. One of my friends and I significantly diminished stitches in the yoke--I believe I eventually removed about 48 stitches from the upper torso, and Sylvie about 25. Valerie opted to knit the sweater as is but later said that although it had a beautiful presence in her closet, she didn’t feel comfortable wearing it.
I love my Aisling now that I've steeked it to take out a lot of fabric, but I wanted the opportunity to create a more Nigella-like garment without the fit issues I knew I would experience if I knitted it straight from the pattern. I went back again to the vest template I created using the Clara vest by Kim Hargreaves, which I blogged about here.. Using the same stitch gauge of 28 stitches = 4", since I again knitted my vest using Marie Wallin’s fabulous British breeds yarn, I imported the Aisling chart into my template which allows significant hip, waist and bust shaping to suit my figure. I used the British Breeds raw, the undyed color of her yarn, as my background, and arranged some of the other colors of her British Breeds yarn to create an ombre effect. Here is the list of colors I used in order from bottom to top:
Thistle, Ocean, Woad, Mallard, Seagrass, and Rose.
These colors lasted through a whole repeat of the colorwork chart for Aisling, and then I just repeated them once more. I used the same neck and shoulder shaping that I used for my Keris.
I am more inexperienced with yoke knitting and how to calculate the correct fit in the shoulders and upper arms, so right now I am sticking with using a stranded template for just colorwork vests. Vests are the hottest new clothing style anyway this year, so I figure this is the perfect time to be knitting them! Next up will be a beautiful, spring-inspired vest designed by Mary Henderson. The vest is called Islay, and I am going to import it into my standard vest template, since the gauge is 27 sts = 4 “ and my standard template is not that different at 28 sts = 4”. Since the gauge is slightly looser, I will be able to go up a needle size which will be fantastic, as so far I have been using a size 1 US needle for the ribbing and size 2 for the body work. So to do the stranded knitting using the Jamieson and Smith yarn using a US size 3 will feel so luxurious and fast! However, I have a few other projects on my needles to finish up first. Mary Henderson truly is an amazing vest designer and you can find a bunch of her stranded patterns here:
I have thought of maybe recording a little video explaining how to apply a vest template to stranded knitting patterns. Would you readers have any interest in that?