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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Reverse Engineering 101

So. My bag of Knit Picks Simply Cotton Organic (Sport weight) has been a little sad, sitting there all alone in the closet, with no pattern to aspire to...I started a Decimal [Knitty pattern link], but that didn't keep my attention. I thought about a Luminarie Skirt [Interweave gallery photos], but that was a little too "doily" for me and I wasn't sure I'd wear it. I started a Camden [Knitty pattern link], and got as far as a few inches of one sleeve, but realized that it really wasn't suited for cotton yarn. Then, I saw the Allegoro Drape Front Cardigan by Classic Elite. Perfect! My copy of the summer People Style Watch had soft neutral colors and flowing silhouettes everywhere, so if I can finish this thing in a decent amount of time I will be right in style.



But--problem. The pattern isn't available for download online by itself...I can only purchase the pattern book it is in for $14.95 plus about $5 shipping. The whole bag of yarn hardly cost that much! Hmmmm. It looks like a raglan sweater. I've made those before. It looks like similar shaping to the bottom fronts of Whisper Cardigan, just on a larger scale...I've done that before. It's settled! I am going to do this without a pattern. (But click here in case you'd like to get the pattern for yourself. It's in Classic Elite 9096 John's Bay, and all the patterns in that book are so cute! Maybe someday I'll get it and see how close I came to getting this one right.) I've never done this before, but I have been feeling more confident in my skills lately, so I think I am ready to tackle knitting off-roading.

My gauge is 24 stitches to 4 inches with the Simply Cotton Sport, which made me think at first I might possibly be crazy to undertake a project of this size with stitches so small. It's going fairly quickly, though. I'm going to take a lesson from my recently-finished Dramatic Lace Cardi and do the sleeves before I finish the body, so as soon as I finish another skein on the body I'll be doing the sleeves. I have a plan all mapped out; the only dilemma left is whether or not to do short rows at the bottom of the fronts to make them longer than the back. I don't think I'll decide until I get to the point where I like the length of the back--and then see what the fronts look like.

Here is what I have so far (and, um, sorry for the weird headless shot--there was no way I was taking a picture of my face and hair today! Haha.):


1 comment:

  1. You go crazy lady! Knitting off road sounds dangerous and FUN!

    AM

    Can't wait to see the end result!

    ReplyDelete