2/30: Taking shape

[darkemeralds]

I've reclaimed the yarn that I bought originally to make the impossible cardigan, and am making a possible cardigan instead. The new pattern is called Romy by German designer Ankestrick.

It's challenging enough to stay interesting, but not so difficult that I can't listen to a book while I work. And--bonus!--it's kind of cute.

What's more, it uses one of the coolest new techniques ever to come out of the creative ferment that is Ravelry: Susie Meyer's Contiguous. Contiguous is a shoulder shaping method that lets you knit a top-down, one-piece, completely seamless sweater with what looks like tailored, set-in sleeves.

And it is so cool! You start at the top of the collar:


Collar, neck shaping and shoulder seams completed, and you can see the start of the sleeve caps between the markers

...and it's like watching a completed sweater rise up out of a pool of yarn, one row at a time. Like the Liquid Metal man in Terminator 2!


Run, security guard, run!

...only soft and non-murderous.


Here it comes!

The shoulder cap and armhole "seam" are created with increases. You do things like short-row neck shaping, buttonholes, and front/back shaping all at the same time--so there's definitely a row-by-row spreadsheet involved, unless your sense of knitting topology is way clearer than mine.

(If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to share my spreadsheet--the pattern itself is condensed to the point of head-scratching, to be honest.)



I left off this evening at the point where the sleeves diverge from the body.



From here, I'll knit the rest of the body, then go back and pick up live stitches and knit the sleeves in the round from the upper arm down to the wrist.

And then only thing left to do will be to sew on buttons and weave in the last yarn end.

Comments

[greghatcher]

They're ALL soft and non-murderous until Skynet goes live.

Just watch your back, that's all I'm saying.

[darkemeralds]

Hah! Will do, Captain.

[scribblemoose]

That's SO clever! Gorgeous colour, too.

[darkemeralds]

The cleverness of the technique really blows my hair back. When you actually knit it, it's so straightforward and obvious you wonder how it could possibly not have been thought of before. Perhaps it has been, but Ravelry provides a platform for spreading genius in the fiber arts. I love that. (Are you on Ravelry? I'm darkemeralds there, too.)

This blue is one of my favorite colors, but based on some damn fashion advice or other in my youth, I got it into my head that I shouldn't wear it. Buying the yarn was like an act of rebellion. Now I find that it looks pretty good on me. All those years, denying myself blue-violet. What a shame!

[scribblemoose]

I agree, Ravelry is great. I've learned so much there. At the moment I'm putting seed beads in the bottom edge of a shawl - so much fun and so pretty!

I'm scribblemoose there as well. :)

(In fact we're friends there already! I'd forgotten!)

[darkemeralds]

Oh! I'd forgotten too--shows that I don't really use Rav as a social site. But I use it constantly as a craft resource.

[azurelunatic]

That is such a lovely, vivid color! As a nearly-pure topology crocheter, I admire the orderly mindset that can work from a spreadsheet.

[darkemeralds]

Oh, do you crochet? Are you on Ravelry? I'm darkemeralds there too.

You've hit on what's probably the fundamental difference between knitting and crochet--the topology thing. I hadn't thought about it. Now my brain is grinding away at it.

I was seriously into beadwork for years, and there's an analogy there, too: loomed beadwork is more like knitting, and off-loom work is more like crochet. In the one, you plan and execute whole rows at a time, in the other, it's a bead-by-bead or stitch-by-stitch process.

I've constructed large items both ways, and my off-loom pieces have an inherent complexity and order that my loomed pieces (one of which is in my icon) lack. It's just more natural to improvise, to shape as I go, in the one-at-a-time method. You can bead or crochet around an object, for example (yarn-bombing, anyone?) much more readily than you could knit or loom around the same object.

I've been itching to do some crochet again--it's been a while since I wielded a hook!

[azurelunatic]

I'm also azurelunatic, but I don't spend much time there these days. I'm intermittent, but I have a dreamsheep and a sex ed hat in progress.

People keep asking me if I can share the pattern for some of these things, but I find it difficult to articulate things down to the stitch level: the dreamsheep pattern is basically "make amigurumi hemispheres, four feet, a face, and a tail, assemble into the shape of a dreamsheep", but my method on the hemispheres is "oh, you'll know when you need to increase to turn it into a hemisphere", which is not so helpful for people who don't have either prior experience, 3D modeling software in their heads, or both; ditto the "make into the shape of a dreamsheep", which is vaguely football-shaped -- I can visualize it, and with 3D software on my computer, I could probably model it, but I have a hard time translating that into words.

And the sex ed hat -- "first, crochet a uterus" -- description sort of fails me, and I have to go back on pictures. (I am particularly proud of the fact that my uterus has a BRIGHT PINK lining, even though I am possibly the only one who will ever see it.)

[darkemeralds]

Okay, now I really want to see your uterus!

[rainkatt]

That is very cool! And an amazing color, which will suit you so well.

[darkemeralds]

Thanks! Are you on Ravelry? You must be! I'm darkemeralds there too.

[rainkatt]

Yes! I'm RainKatt there, too!

[donutsweeper]

Oh wow, that's beautiful. My knitting skills are dreadful, so your success here is very amazing to me!

[darkemeralds]

See my conversation with azurelunatic above, where we touch on the different thinking/brain styles involved in knitting vs crochet. Not that everyone needs to practice a fiber/needle art, or that skill-development isn't a sound strategy, but I'm really beginning to appreciate the enormous power of doing what comes most naturally.

In short, I wish writing came as naturally to me as it seems to come to you!

[ravurian]

I LOVE the colour of that cardigan. I used to have a ribbed roll-neck in that colour when I was an undergrad, and I remember a very serious girl telling me that I was hanging around with the wrong people because of it. I can't quite remember what her rationale was, but I remember thinking it was such an odd thing to say.

I'm glad you explained the plastic fish hooks, because I wasn't sure what they were at first. It makes perfect sense now, of course - of course you'd need markers! I am terribly impressed with your ability to knit.

[vampirefan]

that is looking AWESOME!! i'm seriously tempted to try one myself!

yay for no sewing of pieces together! and so glad it's only "like" a terminator and not actually one. 'cause that would suck.

and for anyone who feels like friending me on ravelry, i'm vampirefan there too!

[darkemeralds]

I hope you do try something in this vein. And if you decide to undertake this exact pattern, I can hook you up. I put in a good amount of work up front breaking it down into more easy-to-follow instructions.

From here on, this shaping technique is going to be my good friend. Raglan and drop-shoulder don't give me my best lines, but setting in sleeves is a pain in the ass.

Yay knitting!

[tehomet]

..and it's like watching a completed sweater rise up out of a pool of yarn, one row at a time. Like the Liquid Metal man in Terminator 2!

*cackles*

What a great idea that knitting pattern is.

[darkemeralds]

I've finally stopped being bloody amazed every time someone innovates in an ancient craft. Or anywhere else. I mean, I am amazed, but if I didn't control myself my jaw would just be on the floor all the time.

It's really one of the great delights of life in the Global Brain to witness astounding innovation and creativity absolutely everywhere.