My New Favorite, Redux

#12 Waterfall Cardigan
from Noro Knitting Magazine Spring/Summer 2016
copyright sixth & spring

A few weeks I shared with you the reveal of the drape front cardigan which I had designed for the book Noro Silk Garden: The 20th Anniversary Collection.  I am very proud of it, and the folks at Vogue Knitting/Sixth & Spring apparently were, too.  They asked me to knit it again in a slightly modified version for the spring issue of Noro Magazine which has just hit the newsstands.  

Drape Front Cardiganfrom Noro Silk Garden: the 20th Anniversary Collectioncopyright sixth & spring

How are the two sweaters different?  They do use the same shape and modular construction, but are worked in different yarns and vary in their patterning.  The book version is in the lighter weight Silk Garden Sock and Sock Solo.  The back and sleeves are in the solid Sock Solo and the front is worked in the color-changing Silk Garden Sock.  

The magazine version is worked in one color way of Silk Garden, but in two row alternating stripes.  Some attention needs to be paid to maintaining contrast, particularly because Noro tends to have knots connecting two starkly contrasting segments of the color way.  But, other than that occasional blip, two row stripes are not significantly more challenging than solid patterning, and they do give a big bang for your knitting buck.  

But why stop at two variations?  In my next post I'll show you something I rarely do.

  

  

Gratitide

Alternate Route

Thanks to knitters everywhere for the tremendous support of my new entrelac scarf design, Alternate Route.  Released on Monday, it hit the top five 'hot right now' within a few hours, and had 3,200 downloads within 24 hours.  Wow.

CodaChrome

If I've inspired anyone to further pursue entrelac, I do have several other patterns in my Ravelry shop.

Panier Purse

In return, you all have inspired me.  My entrelac hat pattern, All Squared Up, is my oldest pattern, and could use an update as some of the sample yarns have been discontinued.  I am pushing this higher up the priority list, and hope to have the re-release to you soon.

All Squared Up

Again, thank you!!!

Alternate Route: An Entrelac Scarf With a Different Approach

What happens when you give a pile of Noro SilkGarden yarn scraps to an entrelac knitting instructor?  Well, in this case, a great new scarf design, Alternate Route.

When this pile of Silk Garden scraps called out to be a scarf, I turned to my teaching pattern.  This creates an entrelac scarf worked in the standard manner - narrow rows worked over and over to grow to a six foot long rectangle.  Since some of my scraps were much more colorful than others, I realized that this approach could result in a very scrappy looking scarf.  My solution was to turn the scarf 90 degrees and work along the long edge.  This approach leaves the same color touching only at the points with the blocks/triangles surrounded by highly contrasting colors.  The effect is to highlight each color while simultaneously blending them all together.

To create greater contrast I did change colors at the beginning of every row.  This left me a few ends to weave in, but I could hide them by working under the single crochet edging.  As I worked across a row I frequently had to deal with ends since I was working with scraps of yarn.  I simply spit-spliced the ends together, while not worrying about abrupt color changes.  And, yes, I did successfully spit splice even though Silk Garden is composed of only 55% feltable animal fiber.

To celebrate the release of this new pattern, I am offering it free for one week.  The deal ends at midnight on Monday, April 18th, 2016, so run over to Ravelry and download Alternate Route now.  Please also 'favorite' it to help other knitters find the pattern.  After the introduction, Alternate Route will be available for $4.00.