Knitter's Magazine #108: Jubilee

Yippee, the first Fall oriented pattern of mine has just come out in the new Knitter's Magazine issue #K108 and it's called Jubilee! What a fitting name for this Fair Isle collar and cuff jacket. :D

© XRX, Inc.

It's a wonderful jacket to throw over your solid colored t-shirt or turtleneck and you are dressed to go.

With this design I tried to do something different than the traditional placement of Fair Isle colorwork and used it for a wide collar and cuffs to steal the show of an otherwise slick, slightly shaped and classic cardigan.

Invisible shaping rows create a gentle curve in the collar

I absolutely LOVE how the Fair Isle collar turned out after incorporating 2 invisible shaping rows that don't interrupt the Fair Isle pattern and give the collar extra fabric to nicely curve around your back neck.

The bottom hem, collar and cuffs all have a "mouse tooth" edging and folded over lining for a clean finish. And the front button bands are knitted in together with the body.

Construction

The cardigan body is worked in one piece, from the bottom up to the armholes, then split into fronts and back.

The collar is knitted on and worked back and forth.

The sleeves are worked flat from the shoulder down, then joined to work the cuffs in the round.

 Yarn

I have to admit that this was the first time that I've worked with Cascade Yarns Cascade 220 and Cascade 220 Sport and I've enjoyed it quite a bit. It held up really well to my many unraveling sessions until I got the shaping and collar increases just right.

It's definitely a great fit for an outer layer like a cardigan and the colors are nice and rich. I will have to come up with a couple more designs of this very pleasant to knit with yarn.

Hope you will enjoy not only this pattern in the new Knitter's Magazine but also all the other inovative cardigans in this issue.

Happy Knitting!

Custom Knit: #396 Poncho by Bergere de France

Okay, I do knit a lot but that #396 is the pattern number and not my 396th custom knit, haha!

© Bergere de France

I was pretty excited when my friend Christine, owner of the CR.eations yarn shops in Ennis and Big Sky Montana, contacted me for a custom knit of this pattern because this was such a striking pattern that had already peaked my interest before she reached out to me.

And on top of it, I've worked with the Bergere de France Magic+ yarn already on a previous project and was pleasantly surprised by the 50% wool/50% acrylic fiber. It does NOT look or feel acrylic at all, is machine washable and has a wonderful drape. BTW, this is a thick worsted weight yarn and I would consider it of Aran weight.

I've made a couple of adjustments to the pattern:

• Working in the round from the bottom up instead of two pieces that have to be seamed up, i.e. cast on 4 sts less for a total of 400 sts (size S/M) and eliminate the “k1” at the beg and end of the row instructions.
  
  
  
  
  
• Changed direction of Stockinette stitch panel decreases to an ssk at the right edge and k2tog at the left edge so that they are less obvious.
  
• Decided to work the “slip 2, k1, pass 2 sts over” instruction for the double dec to close out the St st panel as “slip 2 st tog as if to k2tog, k1, pass 2sts tog over” which will make the center st lay on top.
• Worked the cuffs in the round and then sewed them to the bottom edge.
• Used "Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off" to finish the top.

It took me a little less than 2 weeks to knit this poncho besides my other commitments. It was a realy addictive pattern with me always wanting to knit just one more cable repeat, and one more, and one more..., and before I knew it, the body was done. :)

Plus it helped that there were less and less stitches as you moved up towards the neck.

Body is complete and only cuffs are missing

I've heard that the customer really liked her new hand-knit poncho and I had a fun time knitting this striking pattern.

Please feel free to contact me regarding custom knits as I do take some on from time to time (especially if it's an interesting pattern).