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Thursday August 18, 2011
Blithe
In 2006 I made Deep (a cardigan) in Rowan's Summer Tweed. The colour really suits me but I never wore Deep very much. So I am reinventing it in a new shape. It's an Aran, so knits up speedily. The pattern is by Marie Wallin from Rowan Magazine 47 and looks deceptively simple - and turned out to be a complete nightmare.
I am a pretty experienced knitter and I could not work from the chart at all. In the end I resorted to someone else's drafting of the stitch pattern (thank heavens for Ravelry for pointing me at it) - and made the rest up myself. If I look at all strained in the photo, it is because I was.
The photo itself does not do the yarn justice as it is a wonderful turquoise colour with flecks of pink and other colours, and I had trouble deciding on the perfect buttons - I hope these are they - lovely wooden buttons with faded stripes.
For those who might need some help as I did, I have written out the pattern, in a way that I hope shows the pattern repeat and the end margins; I worked entirely from this but everyone "sees" a patten differently so not guaranteeing it will sort everyone out*. I'm afraid when you get to the increasing and decreasing you are on your own...!
* One Raveller said she "quite got into it" after a while... but I never did, having to refer to the pattern for every row.
Mermaid's Mesh
The most important fact that I missed is that you need 2 margin stitches at the beginning and end of the rows, not just one, so the pattern is worked over a multiple of 9 stitches plus 4.
The blue text shows the sts to knit at the beginning an end of each row, and the stitches enclosed between the symbols || need to be repeated until you get to the last few sts in each row.
All odd-numbered rows are purl working the "YO twice" as K1, P1.
I have used to symbol ¦ to indicate how the decreases and yarn-overs balance each other out. You need this to ensure you keep the same number of sts in the row overall. Sometimes the balanced set of sts straddle the end of one repeat and the beginning of the next - I have used dots to indicate this continuation; at the beginning an end of this type of row, there are unbalanced decreases and yarn-overs in the margins to balance the row out overall.
| Row 1 | K1 yo | || ...ssk ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo K3tog yo ¦ yo...|| | ssk K1 |
| Row 3 | || K2tog yo ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo K3tog yo || | K2tog yo K2 | |
| Row 5 | K1 | || K2tog yo ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo K3tog yo ¦ K2tog yo || | K2tog yo K1 |
| Row 7 | K2tog yo | || K2tog yo ¦ yo K3togtbl yo ¦ K2tog yo ¦ K2tog yo || | K2 |
| Row 9 | K1 K2tog yo | || K2tog yo ¦ yo K3togtbl yo ¦ K2tog yo ¦ K2tog yo || | K1 |
| Row 11 | K2tog yo | || K2tog yo ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo K3togtbl yo ¦ K2tog yo || | K2 |
| Row 13 | K1 K2tog | || ...yo ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo K3togtbl yo ¦ K2tog...|| | yo K1 |
| Row 15 | K2tog | || ...yo ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo ssk ¦ yo K3tog...|| | yo yo ssk |
Posted by Christina at 3:11 PM. Category: Knitting and Crochet
