The Knit No. 8 | A day late and a dollar short
Come with me in a little meander through my current project
My apologies for being late, especially since I knew the month of June was going to be crazy: end of the school year for three kids, standardized tests for two kids in advance of high school and college searches, Father’s Day, our very first high school graduation (Nick and I agree that we’re too young to be this old), driving a kid to Newport News for an internship then going back to get that kid, doctors appointments, vaccinations (my little herd is fully vaxxed!!!), not to mention our first heat wave - it’s a lot, and we’re only halfway through the month. How have the first two weeks of June been for you?
With the heat and such, I haven’t done much knitting. That’s partially my fault because I embarked upon this epic project of adapting my Arachne in the Pines colorwork chart to knit a dress with Jill Draper’s delightful Ansel yarn using one of her three-shade sets (in blue, of course) and a natural dark contrast.
So that’s the palette. The three middle skeins are the main color, and I decided to just use the dark for contrast. I’ll make a hat or something with the light. The photo is upside down, and sub stack doesn’t have photo controls, so I can’t flip it, but you can admire the pretty pretty colors Jill creates from any angle.
What do we have so far? Take a look…
Isn’t it gorgeous?! I’m a little further along than that, but it’s just more of the same. I won’t get to a color change (to the middle blue) until after the arm split at which point I’ll have to decide if I want to put in waist shaping or just give it a bit of an a-line or what. I’m currently planning on short sleeves with more of that gradation corrugated ribbing for the cuffs
What? You thought we designers have it all figured out before we cast on? Sometimes, but not always. Often we have to be ready to pivot because the yarn tells us something or seeing things in real life/3-D takes us in a new direction. Luckily by this point in my knitwear design experience, I at least know the questions and the possibilities, so there are fewer surprises (disasters and frogging) and more knowledge of how to get where I realize I want to go. It’s a process.
The issue at hand (besides the chart not being memorizable, so this being a project that requires focus) is how to grade this pattern and how to help knitters create their size AND get the same effect of changing the main color without asking knitters to buy double the yarn for anything larger than my sample size (at least my sample is more or less in the middle of my grading range rather than a teeny model-sized sample). I plan to use up each main color skein as I knit my way down the body, but different sizes will use up different amounts of the main color, so the change point will be different. Maybe I just write the pattern indicating how much of the main color is needed and let the knitter decide (if knitting a larger size) which of the three shades will need an additional skein.
The thing is that I come from the Elizabeth Zimmermann school:
You are the boss of your knitting.
So, generally that means I make knitting decisions based on what I want and what I can do (my first big project was a baby cable rib poncho from Melanie Falick’s Weekend Knitting, but I didn’t know how to cable so just did it in rib - the lady at the yarn store thought I was nuts, but the world didn’t end, and I had a very nice poncho). Not all knitters have that confidence, which I understand, but if we don’t know how we want our projects to turn out, who does?
As for the grading, the issue is really charting this all out (with the increases for the raglans and possibly decreases for waist shaping) for at least seven sizes in such a way that it doesn’t take thirty pages of giant charts. This colorwork chart is grande to begin with. I know some designers tout the number of pages in their patterns, and there are no limitations on page counts in a PDF, but I come from the world of print publishing, where every page costs money. Plus, again going back to EZ, I like to find the pithy (and elegant) way to communicate information.
I have faith that my brain and I will figure it out, though I have a feeling this pattern will have a lot of notes with options/guidance for the different ways knitters can get what they want. Don’t expect this pattern until the Fall (at least), but in the meantime check out Jill’s yarn. I’ll be back July 1st with a new pattern (hint: something small and portable for the hot weather crowd that will be very handy for my cold weather friends). For those who celebrate, happy Father’s Day. For everyone, happy June and happy knitting!
xxoo, Kathleen
It is gorgeous. Can’t wait to see it. Good thing it has been so cool. I would love to meet up this summer and did you hear that Rhinebeck is on again ?