Knitting in the Heat of October

In case you’re wondering if I'm knitting right now – of course I am! I’m just not talking about it much. Here’s the sleeve bottom of a cropped cardigan with three quarter length sleeves started almost a year ago. The yarn is Moda DEA 100% washable wool in a rich plum.

It may cool off enough here to wear this by sometime in November. The fabric is worked in a knit and seed rib of knit 5, seed 3 so it lays flat. I don’t really like ribbings on my sweaters so usually design for a self finishing edge. Here’s a peek at my design notes and sketches.

Apparently, I wrote one thing and did another for the sleeve cap shaping. When I worked the second sleeve by my notes, it didn’t correspond to the first sleeve cap shaping at all. That sleeve is fine and fits the arm opening perfectly. So, RIP the second one out and do it over. No matter, there’s plenty of time before sweater weather.

In Progress: Design and Knit a Little Girl's Sweater

Today, I'm starting a sweater for my Goddaughter and thought it would be interesting to detail the design and construction steps as they proceed. The design process is not necessarily as straight forward as design and then knit; the designing goes along with the knitting to some degree. Sometimes it goes along with the unknitting (or frogging, as we like to call it) as well!

I promised her a pink sweater with flowers, so the color and design theme is set. Then, I found some Wool Ease, great for kids and moms because it is machine washable, in the local store. It is Rose Heather, a very soft muted rose that is not as babyish as the candy pinks, but still good for a little girl.

Since I knit better and faster in the round, this sweater will be constructed that way even though it will ultimately be a cardigan. To that end, I'll sew and cut the front then finish with the borders. The yoke and shoulders will be raglan style simply because I think it looks neater and more tailored than the round yoke style.

The body will be basic stockinette stitch so I can go ahead and get started without having to work through stitch patterns or consider too many finishing details. The edges will be worked on at the end along with the cardigan borders and will likely be crochet of some type. That leaves me free to work all that out as I knit. This little sweater will really be designed as it progresses.

Sizing is next but since all I know for now is her general size and that she is tall for her age, I'll just use standard size charts to get started. From those charts, I know that the chest measurement is about 23 inches and the ease to add for a loose-fitting garment is 4 to 6 inches. So, the sweater will be 28 inches around.

We'll be seeing her and her parents this weekend and that will give me a much better idea of the proportions. That will enable me to develop the sizing in more detail in the next post as well as have a sketch of the design idea.