The new Interweave Knits arrived on Friday and I have been happily looking at the patterns. I had taken a brief flip-through at Knitting group Thursday night, but was good this time, and didn't pore over the borrowed copy so that I could anticipate curling up with my own copy.
There are three sweaters I love.
As is often the case with me, the first sweater I loved, is also a sweater about which I had to overcome a long internal dialog. I don't know why I argue with myself so much about my choices because usually my first instinct is the correct one, and if I follow that muse I am very rarely disappointed. This is not so much the case when I let my rational mind lead the way; sweaters chosen by the "you should wear this because it will x, y, or z" method are usually abysmal failures. Knitting (shopping, sewing) from the heart, always seems to work.
I had to scan the entire page for this sweater because I couldn't decide which view is best. As usual, the picture can be enlarged by clicking on it. My doubts about this sweater were the long fitted hips with the faux button placket and wondering if this sweater was a good or thing given my long torso and pear-shaped tendencies. But in the end that is unimportant. I actually wear a fair number of similar garments, and the truth of the matter is that I am far less plagued by what I "should" wear, or what other people think than I was younger. Middle age does have its advantages.
Anyway, I could immediately see the usefulness of this sweater with jeans and a turtleneck underneath for all those not warm but not cool either Spring and Fall days. I know, there I go with my turtlenecks again. It is true. I could probably be perfectly happy in a climate where I could wear a turtleneck almost every day.
I am still a little on the fence about whether I will wear this sweater without the turtleneck. I can see it with a little tank and soft linen pants and espadrilles on cooler summer days. It is not a sweater for the hot humid days of a New York August, but then, very few sweaters are suited to heat and humidity. So this one is a go. The yarn is very fine, fingering or lace-weight. I might have enough of something in my stash, but probably only a hand-dyed multicolor yarn, and I am not sure this is the look I am going for. I will need the longest length or perhaps a little extra so I don't want to skimp too closely. It is unlikely that I have enough of a suitable yarn in the stash.
On the opposite page from Zick Zack is the Parker Cardigan. This is a much more classic style, more fitted and structured, and I have always had a weakness for structure and tailoring.
Even though it really shares nothing, style-wise, in common with the first sweater, it is still very much me, and I can easily incorporate this into my wardrobe. I also love the deep v-neckline. I do much better with a deeper neckline than is found in many v-neck sweaters and this will be quite good for me.
The third sweater is actually the only sweater I noticed in that first look-through on Thursday night. It is a very sweet, pretty wrap sweater with lovely lovely flower-bud like motifs at the cuffs and yoke. The sweater is by Connie Chinchio and is called Silk Cocoon Cardigan.
Now I said I noticed it Thursday night, but didn't really think further about it. Again this was a problem of my first impression (like this) battling with the mental aspect (too sweet, I'm not sweet). But then, I'm not really a tough girl either and I love the softness of this sweater and the wrap as well which gives the illusion of a waist. Here again is a sweater style that works for me, but I was letting myself be distracted by the styling of the sweater in the magazine layout, not the way the sweater would actually work in my wardrobe, on me.
Hmm, it seems that there is always much to learn and even though I had hoped to have achieved wisdom and maturity by now, I still have a long way to go.
Anyway, I love the sweater. I would wear it now if it should suddenly materialize in my closet, but we know that it just isn't going to happen. But I had a plan.
Anneliese, Gina, and I were planning on going up to Fabulous Yarns on Sunday, and I noticed from their website that they sell Blue Sky Alpacas' Alpaca Silk. Now I know I love the yarn, and the opportunity to see the yarn in person before buying, to fondle its softness and see the actual colors rather than making an educated guess seemed like a real treat. So I planned on buying yarn for this sweater, and indeed I found it, a beautiful deep rosy red with a hint of pink in it called Ruby. Unfortunately they did not have enough for my size so I was not able to come home with it. This might be good because I might have abandoned by beautiful blue mohair, which I do also love, and plunged right into yummy silk and alpaca goodness. It will happen, as they ordered the yarn for me and the store is only a short trip up the road, just north of Bard College.
But, as usually happens in a yarn shop I also fell in love with something else. And this is exactly why the queue gets longer and longer and I find myself, despite all the best intentions, so easily seduced.
It was the color that caught my eye, a soft grayed-lilac, more gray than it appears in this photo. The photo at the Fabulous Yarn website is a much truer depiction of the color (Jasmine #1213) and I am in love. Then of course I had to decide what I might make and how much to buy. So there I was flipping through magazines and pattern books.
Anneliese was looking at French Girl Knits, and I thought it would be perfect for the cardigan called Wrenna, and of course it would be lovely. So after a bit of quick calculation I picked up the yarn and continued to look around.
During the course of our visit we were talking about the Twinkle Soft Chunky yarn and how the colors didn't do anything for any of us, they were all lovely but just a little off what the three of us would wear. As an aside I am a Summer and my companions probably veer more to the Fall or Spring side of the palette, so we cover a wide choice of yarn colors.
But then, as I was waiting to check out I noticed a perfectly lovely color of the Twinkle yarn, in a color that I would call dusty rose, which in an odd turn, was actually its name. It is a soft color, one that I associate for some reason more with a Japanese color sense than with modern American colors and I adore it. They only had one skein. And it suddenly occurred to me that the Wrenna cardigan would look lovely in that yarn, and it was written for that yarn. But I was buying the lilac. As our conversation meandered on, I learned that the Blue Sky Alpaca Bulky was actually hard to reorder because of a popularity surge after appearing on the cover of the newest Vogue Knitting. And that made me think that there was perhaps something I wanted to knit from the new Vogue Knitting.
And there it was.
This sweater wasn't on my list either. But now I could see it in the soft gray-lilac. It would go so well over so many things in my closet. The color and the style were chanting "Make Me! Make Me!" and I went back to see if there was more yarn. There is barely enough, not quite enough really, I am about half a skein short, but I convinced myself to buy the extra yarn and give it a try.
I am still cautious, it might not work. And if it doesn't I can make Wrenna. Or I can find something else to make.
But it might work. I can leave the bobbles off the bottom ribbing if necessary. I don't want the sleeves quite as long as they are shown and perhaps not quite as wide. Regardless it might work just because of gauge issues. My row gauge is almost always off. I knit long tall stitches and 90 percent of the time I get fewer rows per inch than any pattern calls for. Fewer rows per inch translates to less yarn. As I said it might just work.
I finished the front of the mohair sweater last night. I want to start the sleeves. And I want to start knitting the lilac alpaca.