Tag Archives: #fringeandfriendsknitalong

The fall/winter on Fringe Association

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Fall Events: Marlisle Knitalong + Slow Fashion October

I know, it’s barely even August and we’re still in the thick of #summerofbasics, but in my world it’s November already (I’m up to my eyeballs in Fringe Supply Co. holiday plans!) and Fall is not only in between there, it’s right around the corner. Official knitting season! So I wanted to take a minute to talk about the big blog events of the coming months, so you can get excited AND get planning—

—Fringe and Friends Knitalong—
The first few FAFKALs were each held in September, but I postponed the most recent one (the Logalong) to January instead. While I liked being able to concentrate on it with the holidays behind us — and feel like you did, too? — I missed having a knitalong going in September. So this time around, I’m doing both! The big FAFKAL will be in January again, and I’ll announce the specifics on that in the next couple of months — it’s such a good one!! — so you’ll have plenty of time to swatch during the holidays. But in the meantime …

—Marlisle Knitalong—
For September, I’m thinking something less sprawling, quicker and still tons of fun. Since trying my hand at Anna Maltz’s brilliant “marlisle” technique is high on my list for this year, and I want to do a smaller project as groundwork for my pullover idea, I think a marlisle knitalong sounds like just the thing! So between Sept 1 and 30, that’s what I’m hosting. The challenge is simple: Just knit any of Anna’s marlisle patterns or invent one of your own using her technique. There will be prizes and further details, which I’ll post at kickoff, but meanwhile, pick your pattern!

The bulk of the patterns can be found in her book on the subject, Marlisle: A New Direction in Knitting, and there are several small-scale options very easily doable within the space of September, from fingerless mitts and mittens to hats, scarves and shawls — you can see all 11 of the book patterns here. There are also sweaters in the book, which you’re of course welcome to tackle, and another one available through Ravelry, called Humboldt.

The intro in the book is a great read, as is this interview with Anna on the East London Knit Podcast, so I highly recommend starting there, where you can see her holding up the samples and everything.

Again, I’ll post the nitty gritty about prizes and categories and quals at kickoff, but feel free to start using the hashtag #fringemarlislekal to share your plans at any time! Sept 1 will be here in no time.

—Slow Fashion October—
Following the Marlisle fun, we’ll dive right into our fourth annual Slow Fashion October. I’ve got some special plans and people and a little bit of a format shift in the works for this go-round, and I think it’s going to be amazing. So I’ll tell you more about that as time approaches, as well, but for now know that #slowfashionoctober is coming back around!

Are you excited?

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PREVIOUSLY in Make-alongs: Summer of Basics 2018

Amanda reunion photos

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Amanda reunion photos

I’m back from the trade show, always an incredible time, but the absolute highlight of this trip was the fifteen minutes spent in the company of Amanda Knitalong panelists, wearing our completed cardigans. When I realized all five of us with finished sweaters would be there — me, Anna, Kate, Meg and Jaime (l to r) — I asked if everyone would be willing to pack a big cable sweater in their late May suitcases, and everyone kindly obliged. I really can’t tell you how cool it was to see these sweaters all together — how much the same they are and yet how different. I’m not sure the photos can even begin to do it justice, but I wanted to share them nonetheless. We were really wishing we had all the Amanda sweaters from the knitalong to line the entire sidewalk with.

Then yesterday, a year after this whole thing began, Anna wore hers on a flight to Manchester and my heart exploded.

Amanda reunion photos

Special thanks to Amber for snapping the photos!

Knitalong FO No. 5: Anna Dianich

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Knitalong FO No. 5: Anna Dianich

As you know, the mega-event known as the #fringeandfriendsknitalong started simply with my dear friend Anna Dianich and me wanting to knit a fisherman cardigan, and her gorgeous, woolly version is now complete. Here are her final thoughts—

You were knitting for Team Seam, following the pattern as written. The flat pieces/seamless yoke hybrid is not a construction method either of us had encountered before. What were your thoughts on all that in the end? Were there times during the knitalong, seeing other people’s progress, where you wished you’d done anything differently?

Yes. I was constantly doubting myself and questioning the pattern as written. Many times I thought how silly it was that I didn’t do the sweater seamlessly and wondered if I should have not done the button bands as written. Now that the sweater is done I am very happy that I chose to be Team Seam! I actually feel much more confident about seaming sweaters and, I can’t believe I’m saying this, I actually enjoyed the seaming process. I did follow your lead and seamed my raglan sleeves. They look so much better and there is more strength in that area that gets stretched and pulled every time I slip my arms into the sleeves.

You’re the first panelist to have completed the button bands as written — that is, casting them on with the waistband, then setting aside those stitches, knitting them the rest of the way separately and seaming them on. Had you done a vertical band before? What do you think of it, and tell us about having gone through with the ribbon backing I bailed on. (Should I regret it?)

I felt like I had made a big mistake by doing my button band this way. After seeing everyone else picking up for the button band I thought that doing a vertical button band would be more complicated and fussy. I have never done a vertical button band like this before (actually, this is the first time I’ve heard of it) but it was just fine. I did have a freak-out moment when I tried on the sweater after doing the button band (and before blocking) and the button bands flipped open, I had this same issue with my New Treeline Cardigan. I am happy to report that this is no longer an issue — the blocking fixed that problem.

I didn’t plan on doing the ribbon backing, but after all the hard work that went into this sweater I really wanted to add a little something special. Again, this is something I’ve never done before but after late night texting with Tif and a reading a couple of online tutorials, I dove right in. I am very pleased with the way it turned out, and I also enjoyed the process and learning a new skill.

As you’re knitting this sweater and approaching the join at the underarms, the pattern tells you to end your sleeves on the same chart row as you ended your body pieces, so the yoke patterning will line up. For some of us, because it’s a 40-row chart, this meant making the sleeves a little too long or the body a little too short. But you had a revelation that escaped the rest of us.

As you know from knitting my Lila sleeves, I have long arms. I wanted the sleeves to be a bit longer but if I had ended the sleeves at the same place in the chart as the rest of the pieces, the sleeves would be way too long or too short. I decided that as long as the honeycomb pattern matched up it didn’t matter where I was in the diamond pattern.

Brilliant. You chose a really woolly wool for your sweater, and I think it’s gorgeous — I keep saying it looks like a cloud compared to mine. Are you happy with your yarn choice for this pattern?

I knit my Amanda using Imperial Yarn Columbia 2-Ply, which is considered a worsted-weight yarn but it it really acts more like an aran. When I knitted the swatch, I loved how dense the fabric was — this sweater would keep me warm and toasty here in the cool and foggy PNW. My problem is I love my 6″ x 6″ swatches dense like this but I need to imagine how an entire sweater would feel knit this densely. I mean, I still need to bend my elbows, right? As I was knitting, I worried that this sweater would be like a very heavy straightjacket, but after washing it the fabric relaxed and bloomed and it’s perfect! I should have trusted my swatch.

I’m so glad you texted me that night and said you couldn’t get that girl’s sweater out of your head, because this all turned into such an amazing experience. You basically started all of this! — are you happy with how it turned out? And are you eager to embark on another cable sweater or have you had enough?

I can’t take credit for this. I did want to knit the Chicago-to-Manchester-Airport-Fisherman-Cardigan, but you were the one who found the perfect pattern. And if it weren’t for this amazing knitalong that you hosted and the talented panelists, my Amanda cardigan would still be sitting in a project bag next to my other neglected knitting projects. This amount of cables can be intimidating, but I was really surprised how easy this stitch pattern was to memorize. And doing this project really built my confidence in knitting cables without a cable needle, dropping down and fixing cables, and seaming.

I am THRILLED with the way this sweater turned out!  I had many, many doubts and if I did it again I would make my neckline a bit higher, but I really love it. I actually love it so much that I am a little scared to wear it. I’m nervous about having things spill on it. I take it off when I drink coffee, and I eye my kids’ fingers before they reach out to touch my sweater. No peanut butter and jelly on my Amanda, please.

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Thank you, Anna! Some of you may be wondering what happened to panelist Amy Christoffers. Unfortunately, life happened and she had to bow out awhile back. But Rebekka Seale is still knitting and has taken a fascinating detour. I’ll talk to her about that on the blog next week!

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater

Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater

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Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater

So as I mentioned yesterday, I seamed the seamless yoke of my Amanda cardigan, and I want to talk about both how and why I did it — about the the idea of including what I’m going to refer to as a “basting stitch” in seamless sweaters to combine the best aspects of knitting seamlessly with the best aspects of seamed garments.

SEAMED VS. SEAMLESS

This is the central conflict of knitting, as far as I can tell. Knitters love seamless sweater patterns, for a multitude of arguably legitimate reasons: ease, speed, increased control over the outcome. But what’s best for the knitting process might not be best for the sweater. In most cases, a garment will wear better — hold its shape longer, and look better doing it — if it has seams to lend it structural support. A sweater without seams is sort of like a tent without poles: you can still climb in there and it will protect you from the elements, but it’s a pretty different experience. I have a beloved, much worn, navy top-down sweater in my closet that, even though it was knitted with neck shaping and the neck band was picked up and knitted from the cast-on edge (that picked-up edge being the only undergirding in that sweater), the yoke has mushed around and settled enough over time that I can now barely tell the difference between front and back. In fact, when I wore it on a flight to Seattle in November, I became convinced I had it on backwards.

As we were working our way through the Amanda knitalong, a lot of discussion arose about the relative merits of seamed vs seamless knitting and, combined with turning that navy sweater around that day before realizing it was on right the first time, I got to thinking about this conflict pretty nonstop.

I love a top-down sweater. I’ve had this debate with numerous people, and I maintain that top-down knitting is the gateway drug to sweater knitting — certainly it was for me. Top-down or bottom-up, I’m not opposed to the act of seaming; I genuinely enjoy it, and it doesn’t even take that long. When I was a brand-new knitter, though, the idea of knitting four or five large pieces (a big time investment) and seaming them together (further investment) and only then knowing how I had done — whether it fit and whether I liked it — was unimaginable. It was just never going to happen. Through top-down, I learned how shaping works, how row gauge especially factors into it … in short, how to exert control over my own sweater. Once the notion of knitting a sweater was no longer daunting, and with that gained understanding of how they basically work, I felt more comfortable tackling bottom-up and pieced sweaters, and more confident that I could get the right fit. (Although even now, I have no idea how an armscye is calculated or how to tamper with it, so set-in sleeves are still not malleable for me. Yet. And since I’m apparently incapable of simply following a pattern, malleability is important to me.) I see real value in seamless knitting, in other words, even as I see the value of seams. So what’s a knitter to do?

THE IDEA OF A BASTED SWEATER

As I was nearing the yoke of my Amanda cardigan — having chosen to knit the pattern in pieces as written, prepared to seam the sides and sleeves — I became increasingly preoccupied with the seamless yoke on the horizon. Why would I put all that effort (and seaming!) into a glorious handknit sweater and have it lack that critical underpinning of seamed shoulder construction? And I kept thinking about that trusty blue sweater and pondering the notion of reinforcing it. First I thought about adding something simple and austere like a row of single crochet along the inside of the raglan to shore it up. But it got me wondering why you couldn’t knit a seamless garment in such a way that you built in stitches that were meant to be seamed out later, the way you design steek stitches into a garment you’re going to cut open. Or like in sewing where you baste pieces together temporarily knowing you’re going to go back and add the finished seam later. And, falling more and more in love with the idea, I pondered what the right combination of stitches would be for that built-in seam allowance. But then once I started knitting the Amanda yoke, I realized the answer was right in front of me.

Amanda’s raglan “seam” is a single stitch of reverse stockinette — 1 purl stitch, in other words. It seems to me too weak a stitch to hang a whole sweater on, but it’s the ideal basting stitch. The number one benefit of seamless knitting, in my opinion, is being able to gauge and adjust fit as you go. So if you’re going to work seamlessly and then remove stitches at the end, you want to remove as few as possible, since that’s going to be an adjustment to the fit. Four stitches — one per raglan — is the smallest possible number for a yoke. One stitch per side seam is a total of only two stitches removed for the whole body. A single stitch per sleeve. All you have to do to seam this basting stitch closed is pick up the running thread on either side of that stitch and work it just like standard mattress stitch. And in doing so, you’ve just given yourself the perfect seam in which to bury the ends once you’re done. As far as I can tell, it’s flawless.

Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater

HOW TO SEAM A SEAMLESS SWEATER

Here’s the blow-by-blow:

Step 1) Take a piece of yarn about one-and-a-half times the length of your seam and thread it through a tapestry needle. Start at the first stitch at the bottom of your basted seam. (I’m using my Amanda raglan seam to illustrate, so that’s the first stitch up from the underarm seam.) Pick up the running thread to the right of the basting stitch — see upper left photo above — and pull your yarn through, leaving a tail to weave in later.

Step 2) Pick up the running thread to the left of the same stitch — see upper right photo above — and pull your yarn through, but don’t pull it tight yet. Leave it just wide enough to reach across the basting stitch.

Repeat steps 1 and 2 — lower two photos above — picking up the right and then left thread on either side of each stitch, until you’ve worked about an inch of stitches. Gently pull on both ends of the working yarn to pull the seam closed. The adjacent stitches should nestle up against each other naturally — don’t pull them too tight or they’ll bunch. This is all exactly like standard mattress stitch.

Keep working your way up the seam, pulling the stitches together every inch or so, until you reach the top of the seam. When you’re done, run both ends through to the wrong side of the work and weave them into the seam you just created. (I did it just like I do on the wrong side of ribbing.)

Basted knitting: Or, how (and why) to seam a seamless sweater

This took me all of eight or ten minutes per raglan, and increased the appearance and the lifespan of my sweater exponentially.

As I said, I’m certain I’m not the first person to ever add a seam to a seamless garment — likely far from it. But for me personally, this is an epiphany. I recognize the benefits of knitting in pieces — namely the portability. But since I do 95% of my knitting on my couch (and because I like to change things to suit myself, and because I dislike starting back at the bottom again for each piece) seamless knitting has undeniable appeal. But I believe wholeheartedly in seams. Now that I realize all I need to do when knitting seamlessly is insert a single column of purl stitches wherever a seam should be, and seam it up at the end, I feel like my whole knitting world may have changed.

Can it really be that easy to have it both ways? I’ll be testing the theory ASAP.

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: FO No. 4: Karen Templer

Knitalong FO No. 4: Karen Templer

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Knitalong FO No. 4: Karen Templer

This is pretty silly, but since I’ve been doing all of the other #fringeandfriendsknitalong panelist FO posts as interviews — and to help me organize my copious thoughts on this — I’ve interviewed myself for today’s post! Please forgive me—

Your sweater looks a lot like the pattern photo but you actually made several modifications. Can you summarize them?

– Minor details: tubular cast-on, and I worked the diamond cables so they twist toward each other instead of all one direction
– Knitted it at a tighter gauge, so I knitted a larger size to get the finished dimensions I wanted
– Added a pair of reverse-stockinette stitches flanking each diamond panel (in other words, one stitch to the outside of each of those slipped-stitch borders) to give me a little more wiggle room in my final measurements
– Also added extra stitches in the lower back, to give me the extra width I need across the hips
– Because my row gauge was also smaller, I re-charted the yoke to give me more rows (to meet the schematic’s yoke depth) and re-charted the neck shaping while I was at it
– And I did not cast on the button bands along with the waist ribbing — I left that out and did picked-up button bands instead

Weren’t you hell-bent on doing vertical button bands with a ribbon backing and all that?

I was. Then I knitted this sweater — and nothing but this sweater — for four straight months, and to be honest, I wanted to be done. And specifically I wanted to wear it to TNNA, the trade show, and the only way that was going to happen in the time allotted was to pick up the bands rather than seaming them on. I can always pull them out and change them, but I’m actually really happy with how they turned out.

With all the stitch patterning, I thought it would be nice for the bands to have a distinctive edge, so instead of binding off in pattern, I bound off all stitches knitwise from the wrong side, so what you see is just the edge of that row of bound-off stitches. I love it.

What happened to that whole shawl-collar idea?

I’m super jealous of all the shawl-collar versions that came out of this knitalong — Meg really should lock hers up when I visit. But it became clear that this sweater was going to be somewhere between fitted and too small, and I think a shawl-collar sweater wants to be a little slouchy. Plus I thought back to the impetus for all of this and what I wanted was an ivory crewneck cardigan to replace a retired one, so that’s what I did.

You were knitting for Team Seam, yeah? Are you happy you chose that path?

Yes, I knitted the five separate pieces (two fronts, two sleeves, one back) and then, as written in the pattern, joined them at the underarm and worked the yoke seamlessly. Like Kate, I’m a little puzzled at this approach, since the raglan seams are maybe the most important ones, structurally. And if you’re seaming, why not seam the whole thing? But I was planning to rewrite the neck shaping and, if I didn’t get it right on the first try, it was going to be a million times easier to rip back and adjust if it was one seamless piece. So I went ahead and did that. But then I did something I’ve never done before (although surely someone, somewhere has) — I went back in and seamed the seamless raglan.

Sorry, you did what now?

The raglan “seam” for this sweater is just one stitch in reverse stockinette, which seems really vulnerable to me. It looks nice as you’re knitting it, but I could just imagine it stretching out and looking, um, less good over time. I think it’s more a concern with my fabric than for those who used light, fluffy wools at pattern gauge. Rather than go any further into how or why I did that, I’ll save it for a separate post, because it’s a concept I’m really excited about and will be doing some pontificating about.

But meanwhile, yes, I’m very happy the sweater is fully seamed because I want it to last and keep its shape as long as it possibly can, especially given the time I’ve invested. Like, I hope my great-nieces wear it someday.

You mentioned your fabric — you opted to knit this is in a wool-cotton blend, O-Wool Balance. Are you happy with that choice?

Totally! I wanted this to be a 3-season sweater, and I’m so glad I did that because I would hate to be limited to wearing this only in the depths of winter. It’s too good to be packed away! Cotton is weightier and less elastic than wool, and because I also knitted it at finer gauge, my sweater looks really different from the wooly ones. I might need a wooly one someday. But I love the Balance and how it turned out — the fabric is cozy and lovely without being dense or hot. Exactly what I wanted.

So is there anything you’d change?

If I had it to do over again, I would have been less impatient by the time I got to the neck. I specifically charted the neck shaping (see below) in such a way that the slant of the decreases could be maintained beyond the fronts and into the sleeve tops. So if I felt like the neck needed to be higher and smaller, I could just keep knitting and decreasing. I don’t like it when the back neck of a sweater is too wide — I think that’s when it slides around while you’re wearing it. I’m happy with my neck shaping — the actual curve of it — I just wish I had kept going for a few more rows to keep raising and narrowing it at the back. But it’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of how happy I am with this sweater.

I learned to knit so I could make this sweater — this is what I wanted to be able to do. The fact that it was knitted in the virtual company of so many good friends and readers is icing on the cake. As I was binding off the neck in a hotel room in Phoenix, I became aware of the fact that the sweater started with Anna and me accosting a stranger at Midway last summer on our way to Squam, and ended with me knitting the neck while at TNNA again with Anna, with lots else in between. So I really don’t have words for what all is knitted into this sweater. The difference between it and some anonymous factory-made sweater is genuinely indescribable.

Knitalong FO No. 4: Karen Templer

There are more photos on my Ravelry project page. And Anna and Rebekka are still knitting, so stay tuned! (I can’t believe I’m not last!)

Bleached horn buttons and Knitters Graph Paper Journal from Fringe Supply Co., of course. Photos by my darling husband.

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: A different way to shape a sweater

A different way to shape a sweater

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A different way to shape a sweater

Remember when I used to blog about what I was knitting? Back when I used to always be knitting something different all the time and had finished objects to show you?! Knitting one project for three months (and counting!) is hard on a knitblogger, but despite the copious knitalong posts, I haven’t actually posted much about my own Amanda — and I do have some things to tell you about it. Namely, how I created shaping where there is none.

Being sort of a stick figure of a person, I never mind a sweater that doesn’t nip in at the waist — in fact, I’m inclined to skip that part in patterns that have it. I have what my friend Rachel colorfully calls “UBF,” Upper Butt Fat. My bust is about 34.5″ but my upper hip measurement is closer to 38″. I like a sweater to have the same ease at the hip as it does at the bust, so what I’m always striving for is more of an A-line shape. I’m aiming for a 36″-ish bust measurement with this sweater — just about 2″ of positive ease up top — but that would be about 2″ of negative ease at the upper hip, and a tightly fitting waistband would not please me. Amanda has no waist shaping at all, because the honeycomb wraps around the sides and any shaping in the middle of it would be problematic. But sides aren’t the only place a knitter can put shaping! I’d been thinking about putting in some version of back darts right around the time I heard Amy Herzog talking about them on Knit.fm, which sealed my resolve. I’ll tell you what I did, but first I have to take a step back:

I’m already knitting this sweater at a smaller stitch gauge than the pattern, and am knitting the size large knowing (from the math from my gauge swatch) that it will wind up being very close to the medium’s measurements. My fear is it will actually be a little bit small, and it’s also my opinion that the design could use a little more “air” between the slipped-stitch columns and the honeycomb and button bands. So where the pattern calls for 2 stitches of reverse stockinette on the outsides of the slipped stitches, I’m knitting 3 stitches. There are four diamond cables on the body, and I’ve added 2 stitches per cable — flanking the slipped stitches that flank the diamonds — so I’m working with a total of 8 extra stitches on the body, which gives me about 1.5″ of extra circumference to combat my fear of the sweater turning out too small.

So to create some additional width across the lower back/hips, I added some more stitches between the diamonds and the slipped stitches. If you look carefully at the widest part of the diamonds in the photos above, you can see that on the first/bottom diamond, there are 4 stitches of reverse stockinette between the diamond and the slipped stitches on either side. By the time you get to the second diamond, there are 3 stitches flanking it. And by the third diamond, that’s back down to the 2 stitches the pattern calls. So I started out with 8 more stitches at the lower back and gradually decreased those out. Again, that’s only about 1.5″ of extra width — I was afraid any more extra stitches than that would be too noticeable in this pattern — but hopefully it will be just enough to make to me comfortable with the fit.

I’m finally just a few rows from the join, so hopefully it won’t be too long before I know how it turns out!

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: FO No. 3: Kate Gagnon Osborn

Knitalong FO No. 3: Kate Gagnon Osborn

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Knitalong FO No. 3: Kate Gagnon Osborn

As you know, Kate Gagnon Osborn is the #fringeandfriendsknitalong panelist who took the most liberties with the Amanda pattern as we went, and I’ve been as eager as the rest of you to see how it turned out. It’s awesome to see that it’s still Amanda and yet not Amanda — and such a good example of how a pattern can be just a jumping off point for an intrepid knitter. Here are Kate’s final thoughts on the project—

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Kate, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m so glad I asked you to be a part of the official panel for this knitalong because you’ve contributed so much to it — not only in the form of blog posts but by completely reinventing Amanda in front of our very eyes. Can you first just briefly summarize the modifications you made?

I’m so glad you asked me! I felt a little bad when I was going rogue, so I’m really glad my contributions were helpful.

“Briefly summarize”? Courtney would argue that’s never possible for me, but I’ll try!

SLEEVES:
• Cast on fewer stitches for the cuff, increased more sleeve stitches in arm to match the number for the Size M

FRONTS:
• Added a braid on either side of the diamond cable pattern, reduced the honeycomb stitches on the sides
• Lowered the neck shaping

BACK:
• Added 1 more diamond cable and one braid for a total of 3 diamonds and 2 braids, reduced the honeycomb stitches on the sides

OVERALL:
• Worked set-in sleeve instead of a raglan
• Picked up stitches for the buttonbands
• Lengthened body and sleeves by 1/2 repeat
• Worked all 5 pieces separately and seamed

That’s a lot of mods. And it turned out beautifully. Were there any points in the knitalong, watching others knit the sweater differently, where you wished you had done something a different way?

Gah … I know! And half of them weren’t intentional! Besides adding more cables (which many may not notice at first glance), the biggest structural/visual mod I made was to convert from a raglan to a set-in sleeve. This was actually totally unintentional — I meant to do a raglan all along, but I discovered deep into the back raglan shaping that the addition of the third diamond cable made for really wonky raglan decreases, so set-in sleeves were a much better aesthetic option. A really lovely element of the original design is the way the cables on the sleeves and body beautifully connect at the raglan seam, so a part of me regrets not having this in my sweater to honor Lene’s vision. While I really love the finished product, a small part of me does still wish I could have just left well enough alone and knit the sweater as written!

Adding those extra diamonds and braids (which meant subtracting a lot of honeycomb) gave it a very different look from the average Amanda. Are you happy with how that worked out?

In the long run, yes, I am. I like odd numbers, so I love the three diamonds on the back, and love the look of a braided cable, so I’m happy I added more of them. It definitely caused me more difficulty in sorting out the sweater — there were long stretches where I never consulted the pattern — but I really love the end result.

The other significant design departure you took was with the button bands. The pattern is written for vertical 1×1 ribbed bands. Why did you opt to pick up stitches for horizontal bands instead, and can you also tell us about your decision to increase the number of buttons?

You and I have spoken a lot about the way the button bands are written in the pattern. In all of the images, the seaming appears to be a non-issue, but I was, admittedly, concerned about the way the button band would join to the body without being seamed all the way down. Others with more foresight than I thought to work the button band simultaneously on a smaller needle, which is genius, but I was too far deep into my fronts before considering this as an option. Once my sweater pieces were complete and it was blocked and seamed, I still had the option of doing the button bands vertically and seaming them on. I tried a few different methods of working the selvage stitch, but nothing looked “perfect” enough, so I ended up picking up stitches and working each band, then working the neckline. I chose to work more button holes because I knew I was going to want to button it up at times, so I wanted to avoid the gaping at the bust that sometimes occurs when not enough buttons are used.

By the way, many people say they don’t love picking up stitches for a button band because of the risk of it waving or being stretched out and causing “ruching” on the sweater body. For a fail-safe button band, all you need to know is your stitch gauge (S) and row gauge (R). The ratio of S/R = the ratio of picked up stitches. As an example, if you have 16 sts and 20 rows to 4″, your ratio is 16/20, or 4/5, so you’d pick up 4 stitches for every 5 rows along your front edge.

You were one of the most vocal members of Team Seam, so you were always planning to knit the sweater in pieces, as written. But the pattern has a seamless raglan yoke, which I think you were originally planning to work flat and seam as well, before you decided to switch to set-in sleeves and seamed shoulders. You were averse to the seamless yoke no matter what, correct?

For the Amanda, I didn’t quite see the point of knitting the body in pieces and the yoke in one piece, so it was my intention all along to do the raglan yoke in pieces. When I made the change to a set-in sleeve sweater, keeping it seamed was a no-brainer.

Despite my love for a classic Lopapeysa yoke sweater, I am a firm believer in sweaters with seams, especially at the armholes/shoulders, where garments are stretched out a lot when worn. Some of my love of seaming stems from the yarns I use most frequently — the Fibre Company yarns have a lot of drape, so a good seam is a really key ingredient to a long-lasting garment — but it is mostly because of my sewing background and how I see most garments constructed. I also much prefer knitting smaller pieces, as so much of my knitting is worked on the go. I know (and really respect) people who are not as seam-obsessed as I am, so I do try to stay open-minded and see the benefit of that way of sweater construction. (I think Jaime’s answer to her choice to go full-seamless is really thoughtful and intelligent and a good lesson on how yarn choice and desired end result can go a long way to inform process. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a sweater quantity of Heirloom waiting to be knit up!)

You’ve also said you loved this project because it gave you a chance to knit a sweater for yourself, as opposed to a pattern sample that will travel around to shows and shops instead of living in your closet. Are you happy that sweater was Amanda? And do you have any idea what your next personal knit will be?

Yes! It was complicated enough that it kept my interest, and the end result is very “me” in style. I went through a phase where I exclusively wore cardigans, but (inexplicably) switched to pullovers a year or two ago. Now I’m trying to meet in the middle, and Amanda is the perfect balance, as I can wear it open, but I can also button it up all the way.

My next personal knit? Oh my … I haven’t actually thought of one yet! After an eight-year hiatus, I recently got back into spinning, so I think I am going to try to spin enough yarn to knit myself a sweater.

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Thanks again, Kate! And you can also see/save Kate’s sweater and notes on Ravelry. I so love how different our three finished panelists’ sweaters are so far — Jaime’s, Meg’s and now Kate’s. Anna, Rebekka and I are all still cranking along — and ironically, our three sweaters are the most alike so far — but it may be a few weeks before I have any more finished sweaters to show you! The #fringeandfriendsknitalong hashtag is still going strong, so keep on knittin’ on!

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PREVIOUSLY in #fringeandfriendsknitalong: FO No. 2: Meg Strong