August 2019 – Deb Gemmell: Top Down, Gauge Free and more

Orange Wedges

“It’s been an orange summer”, a comment by my husband as I showed off my latest Wedge Shawl. Yup, it’s been the colour theme around here for several weeks.

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Especially fetching with my flannel shirt, don’t you think?

I started with these odd balls out of my stash.

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When most of this was gone I dove into the odd ball bag again for just a little bit more.

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I think I like this Wedge Shawl the very best so far.

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All eyelets, all the time. Eyelet Wedges that are symmetrical!!

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I’m going to look over the Wedge Shawl pattern about 100 million times more and then release it next week. I, of course, am on to another project. After all, I finished this shawl yesterday and now I have to knit something today. Might as well knit sleeves.

Thanks for reading,

Deb

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Symmetrical Wedges or not

Symmetry vs non-symmetry? Where do you stand? My last set of wedges I knit, the eyelet wedges, are not exactly the same on both sides of this shawl.

I don’t know if you can see it here but the eyelet wedge on the first side (right side of photo) has 1 garter ridge on the inside edge before the first row of eyelets and 2 ridges on the outside edge. The second side wedge (left side of photo) has 2 garter ridges before the first set of eyelets and one ridge afterwards.

This makes it easier to write the instructions but … the lack of symmetry has me bugged. Would it bug you? Here’s a closer look at two photos showing the eyelet wedges.

It’s true that not even another knitter would notice the difference once it was around your neck, a phrase I rely on when students are getting upset about small errors in their knitting. But as this is a written pattern I think it should be written with symmetrical sides.

I’ve just finished a fingering weight version which is drying on my clothesline. An unorthodox way of blocking but it’s what I have here at camp.

I’m really happy with the way the wedges have made the tails nice and long. But the eyelet thing … it has me starting another one just to get this right.

Does this seem worth it to you?

Deb

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Under the Bust Shaping

Is it too early to think about knitting garments? Too late, I’ve already started but I don’t want to repeat this …

The cardigan is finished. I’m so excited as a stand in front of the wall of buttons at the Fabricland store trying to choose the perfect buttons. These ones, no maybe these ones. I’ve decided on the blue ones (ha, almost always). I’m rushing home to sew them on. Oh, it looks gorgeous. I’m patting myself on the back as I put it on and stand in front of the mirror.

I tug it a little, tug a little more and get that horrible feeling as my heart drops down to my toes.

I have that horrible buttonband gaping. Can I wear it without buttoning it up? Maybe, I guess I could but I really like 3 or 4 buttons done up.

That was several years ago before I realized that I had to have some extra width right here. Body schematic bust shaping Top Down Now as a confirmed cardigan buttoner I add extra Front stitches for Bust Shaping to every cardigan. Then I have extra width just where you need it. Bust shaping Yoke increases Body schematic direction of knitting But now what? What do you do with those extra stitches below the bust?

This is my current cardigan. I decided to knit this Top Down to my regular Finished size, including the ease, and then add even more additional width above my bust. I don’t want that unsightly buttonband gap that seems to show up in so many magazine photos. Negative ease on a cardigan across the bust is a mistake.

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Now I’m cruising down the body with the extra width across the bust. Decision time, do I want these extra stitches to remain on the front for the entire body? Sometimes the answer is yes and sometimes no.

This time it’s no. I’m going to decrease those extra bust stitches away so that my two Fronts and the Back are in their original proportion: 2 Front sts added together = Back sts.

Techy Talk:

I worked straight until I had knit just past the largest part of my bust. For me that’s 4″ measured down from the underarm cast on.

This time I decided to decrease the extra bust stitches or most of them anyway, worked along with some waist shaping. So here goes.

On a Right Side row I’m going to decrease on the front side of the imaginary side seam on both Fronts (that will decrease an extra bust stitch on each Front). Then work a couple of rows and decrease on both the Front and Back sides of the side seams (waist shaping). Knit a couple of rows and repeat. Underbust decreases bust and waist

underbust decreases with 3x3 sweater

I worked this repeat quite quickly with only a couple rows in between the sets of decreases. I’m very short and I needed to start the A-line shaping for my hips pretty sharpish to get the width I needed there. If you are tall, first of all I’m envious, and second you can space these sets of decreases further apart so that you work them down to your waist. It will look terrific.

Cruising to the bottom edge now. Yay. Sleeves here I come.

Thanks for reading,

Deb

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Shawl Wedges Improved

The shawl Wedges won’t leave me alone. I’m dreaming about them. It’s the first thing I want to do in the morning, not before my coffee of course, that would just be silliness, but before my breakfast which had to wait an hour while I started a new shawl.

I want to see if I can refine a process to get longer tails. I’ve started with a standard Isosceles Triangle Shawl shape. I find these shawls difficult to wear because the tails aren’t long enough to hang down the front and keep it anchored in place. This will be the true test of the Wedges for Longer Tails idea.

triangle shawl

I started with a garter stitch tab in the usual manner and worked in garter stitch until I was ready to do the first wedge. This time I’m working the Shawl Tip so that when I block it I will be able to stretch the top edge nicely.

Then I got ~~a little~~ a lot ahead of myself and thought I would add a mosaic pattern to the wedge. I was feeling very smug. I knew exactly what I was doing. The first wedge with mosaic patterning went really well.

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