Have you seen the new Crossings book from Knit Picks? It’s a collection of 12 sweaters and wraps all showcasing classic cables. My contribution to the book is the Lucky Gansey, an all-over cabled fisherman style sweater worked from the top down.
The sweater starts with a cable at the back neck which spans the saddle shoulders and continues down the sleeves. Shoulder shaping is worked into the saddles to keep the drop shoulders from becoming too voluminous or droopy.
The sweater is worked flat to the underarms, then the gusset stitches are cast on and the body is worked in the round to the hem. Underarm gussets are a classic element of fisher Ganseys, allowing sweaters to be form fitting without being restrictive.
The Lucky Gansey gets its name from the cables I chose. The cables adorning the front and back of the sweater are knitted representations of horseshoes, wishbones, X’s and O’s, and honeycomb, all symbols of good luck.
The pattern calls for Knit picks Wool of the Andes, an affordable, worsted weight, 100% wool yarn that is available in an expansive range of colors. The fisher Gansey shape was historically worn by men, and with a size range from 34″ to 55.25″ around the chest, this sweater could easily be made to fit a man or woman.
Are you a cable knitter? Do you have your eye on one of the designs in this book? Tell me about it in the comments!
The Compass Points Pullover was published in the Fall/Winter 2018 issue of knit.wear magazine. It’s a bulky cabled sweater featuring raglan shoulder shaping, a thick and cozy funnel neck, and a long tapered waist. Cascade’s Boliviana Bulky yarn makes the knitting speed by, so you’ll be dressed in a new, warm, winter sweater in no time at all!
The pullover is worked from the top down beginning at the neck. After a few tries incorporating neck shaping into the cable patterns and raglan shaping, I decided to save the neck shaping for last, so all of the neck stitches are cast on at once and the body is worked in the round to the hem. The raglan increases are worked before and after a column of Stockinette stitch, which continues down the sides of the sweater and highlights the waist shaping.
When the body of the sweater is finished sleeve stitches are picked up and worked in the round to the ribbed cuffs. The cable pattern starts at the neck and continues down the sleeve to blend seamlessly into the cuff ribbing.
The funnel neck is picked up last and short rows are used to raise the back neck. I had originally planned to make the funnel neck shorter and a single thickness, but when it was finished it was just too floppy and didn’t look the way I wanted it to, so I made the neck band twice as long, folded it over, and sewed it to the inside. Perfect! The funnel neck is thick and cozy without hugging your neck in an annoying way.
The Fall/Winter issue of knit.wear magazine is available now in print and digital formats.
I’ve just added the Bristol Raglan to my Ravelry pattern store. This pattern was first published in the Spring 2017 issue of Interweave Knits magazine. I’ve revised the pattern to include written directions along with the cable charts, and I’ve changed the directions slightly to make it easier to follow the raglan shaping directions and cable patterns at the same time. This pattern and all of my other independently published patterns are 30% off the regular price now through November 27, 2018. You can see all the patterns on sale here. No code needed, just add the patterns to your cart and the discount will be applied automatically at checkout.
The Bristol Raglan is a top-down seamless pullover, worked mostly in the round. The neck is cast on first, and worked flat to create a lower front neck line, then the piece is joined and worked in the round to the underarms. Simple cables adorn each raglan seam line, and stop just before the underarm separation.
After the body and sleeves are separated, the body of the pullover is worked in stripes to the split hem. The front and back are separated, and the back hem is worked longer than the front. A little cable detail keeps the hem neat where it splits at the sides, and a purled phony seam on each side hides the jog from the color changes.
Three-quarter length sleeves are worked in the round from the held sleeve stitches and a provisional cast on at the underarm, but working from the top down means you can easily change the length.The pattern is available in five sizes, from 37″ to 50 1/2″ bust sizes, and it’s worked in a worsted weight yarn. You can see all the details on the pattern page.
The Lake Geneva Sweater is my design for the Winter issue of Knitscene. It’s a top-down, drop shoulder, V-neck sweater, made entirely without seams. The marled effect is created by holding two strands of fingering weight yarn together. For the sample I used Cascade Yarns Sorata in Charcoal and Silver. I love the simplicity of this design and I think it will be a fun and easy knit for both beginner and experienced sweater knitters. Worked at a worsted weight gauge, this sweater goes fast!
Copyright Knitscene/Harper Point Photography
One of my favorite features of this design is the way the shoulders are shaped. Drop shoulders can get a little droopy (think of big shouldered sweaters from the 1980s) unless they are tapered toward the sleeve, and that is usually achieved by working short rows. For this design I did something even easier; the shoulders are worked in garter stitch and the taper is created by gradually working more stitches in stockinette stitch until only the armhole border is worked in garter stitch. The shorter row gauge of garter stitch makes the length at the armhole shorter than at the neck edge.
Copyright Knitscene/Harper Point Photography
The V-neck shaping couldn’t be simpler from the top down. There is no need to cast on stitches for the front neck as you would for a round neck, instead increases are worked at the neck edge until there are enough stitches to join the fronts and work in the round. The V-neck shaping was carefully planned so that it doesn’t start until the garter stitch shoulders are complete, and the fronts are joined at the base of the neck on the same row the front and back are joined at the armhole. I’m not a fan of “at the same time” instructions, so I avoid them whenever possible!
Copyright Knitscene/Harper Point Photography
The body of the pullover is worked straight to the hem, and the sleeves are picked up and worked in the round from the armholes, so after doing the hard work of shaping the neck and shoulders it’s all mindless stockinette. There is a little column of garter stitches on each side, which acts as a faux seam and makes a fun detail. It is also repeated on the sleeves at the underarm. Ribbed cuffs and hem complete the sweater adding to the casual, comfortable feel.
The Winter issue of Knitscene is available in the Interweave Store, and at bookstores and yarn shops all over. Thank you for knitting!
Last summer while I was packing up and moving out of the swamp, I received an email from Meghan Babin (the editor of several Interweave publications) asking me to submit 2 to 3 design ideas for their new digital magazine; Wool Studio. It was wonderful to have something creative to think about while I sorted, packed, and cleaned, and after all the work was done I had 3 ideas that just needed to be sketched out and swatched. The design that was chosen for the issue was a wrap in a geometric lace pattern using gorgeous June Cashmere dk yarn.
The wrap begins at the center with a circular cast-on and increases at the corners to create a square. Alternating bands of garter stitch and stockinette create textural interest, and look good from both sides. The top and bottom of the square are bound off with a knitted-on garter stitch edging, that flows seamlessly into the border of the shawl.
After the center square is completed, each side of the wrap is worked separately back and forth. Although the pattern is given in 2 large charts, it becomes intuitive after a few repeats and you don’t have to refer to the chart for every row.
Storm Clouds is my latest self-published shawl pattern. It uses the same crescent shape construction as my Current shawl, but with a different lace pattern and a picot bind-off.
Like all my lace shawls, the pattern includes both written directions and charts. The lace is a fairly simple repeat, but the knit 4 together decrease can be a little difficult, so an alternative 4-into-1 decrease is included in the pattern.
The yarn I used is a gorgeous silk and wool blend lace weight from Wollelfe. I love the way the lace pattern looks in this delicate gradient, but my test knitters also had excellent results with solid, variegated, and heavier yarns.
You can see all the details on the pattern page, and if you have any questions please post them in the Kephren Knitting Studio Ravelry group. I can’t wait to see what your Storm Clouds will look like!
The Keeley Gansey was my first design submitted, and accepted to a magazine. It’s been over a year since the pattern was first published and that means that the distribution rights have reverted back to me. The pattern is now available as a PDF download from my Ravelry store, with revised directions and a a new sample in different yarn. I thought it would also be fun to look at the design process, which started two years ago with the design submission call from Interweave Knits magazine.
This is an excerpt from that call:
“Give us your best Arans, Fair Isle pullovers, ganseys, Nordic ski sweaters, Icelandic yokes, Bohus yokes, and more. Show us rich texture and colorwork in traditional shapes: drop shoulders, underarm gussets, unshaped bodies, steeks, picked-up sleeves, circular knitting. What subtle details can you introduce to make the looks modern without totally redesigning the archetype?”
I was intrigued, and decided to design a Gansey, but instead of making it the traditional way from the bottom up, I would start at the top and work down. I also decided to use lace patterns instead of the traditional knit and purl patterns or cables. Lace patterns are sometimes used on Ganseys, but I wanted this design to be especially feminine by adapting traditional Gansey elements to flatter a woman’s figure.
I started with this swatch:
And this sketch:
I also included two pages of notes, a detailed schematic, and a hand drawn assembly diagram. I wanted to be sure that the magazine editors had as clear a picture of my idea as the one I had in my head. I was still surprised when my design was chosen for the issue.
Lisa Shroyer, the editor at the time, discussed a few different yarn options with me and we settled on Dale of Norway Heilo, a sport weight 100% wool yarn in a natural oatmeal color. The yarn was a little thicker than the yarn I had used in my swatch, causing the lace to have more of a textural quality and creating a denser fabric than I had imagined. The design still turned out beautifully and I was really pleased with the result!
Copyright Harper Point Photography
The magazine was first published in November 2016, and a year later I had the option to publish my own version of the design on Ravelry and anywhere else. I wanted to see how the sweater would look in a finer yarn at the same gauge, so I pulled some of my favorite yarn out of my stash, madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light, and knit a second sample while revising the pattern to fit my style sheet.
You can see in the new Keeley Gansey that the lace pattern is much more open and the fabric has a bit more drape. I think the pattern works great in either yarn! It took me longer than I wanted to finish the revisions, but the new PDF version also includes written directions as well as a chart for the lace panels, and an assembly diagram for the shoulder straps and neck cast-on. The pattern photos were taken at the Algoma Marina, with Margaret, a historic fishing tug, in the background. I think it’s the perfect setting for this Fisherman style sweater.
I released a new pattern yesterday! Jean’s Jacket is a seamless, top-down cardigan with lace details. It starts at the ribbed collar which transitions into the lace and cable pattern on the sleeves and fronts. The shoulders are shaped using different rates of increase to create an S-curve rather than the typical diagonal raglan lines. The button band is worked along with the body of the sweater with buttonholes worked right into the pattern. You’ll find all the details, and a 25% discount through January 12, 2017 on the pattern page.
When the shoulder shaping is finished the sleeve stitches are set aside, underarm stitches are cast on, and the body is worked down to the ribbed hem. I like to use a provisional cast-on for the underarms because it’s easy to pick up the stitches later and it keeps the underarm stitches from being too tight. First I slip the sleeve stitches onto waste yarn and then I use the waste yarn to provisionally cast on the underarm stitches. I took some photos so you can see exactly how I do that.
The sleeve stitches are held on waste yarn (in pink) and the working yarn is ready to cast on the underarm stitches.
Bring the needle under the waste yarn and over the working yarn…
then back under the waste yarn to create a loop on the needle. This is the first stitch.
Now make a yarn over. This is the second stitch.
Keep alternating the last two steps until all the underarm stitches are cast on, then continue working on the body stitches.
When you’re ready to return the sleeve stitches to the needle just slip the provisionally cast on stitches onto the needle too. You will notice that every other underarm stitch is mounted with the right leg to the back of the needle. You will have to turn the stitches the right way around by working into the back loop on the first row.
I made the Blowout Cardigan for the Winter issue of Knitscene magazine. It’s a fun little cardigan worked in bulky yarn with a lace pattern on the sleeves; the perfect thing for holiday parties and cold weather layering. The bulky wool, Universal Yarns Deluxe Superwash Bulky, is soft and easy to work with, but it did present a challenge. I usually attach new skeins using the wet splice method, but I didn’t think the ends would felt together well enough in superwash wool. Simply weaving in the ends wouldn’t do either, because the yarn is so thick it would leave a noticeable bulge wherever I attached a new skein. Instead I used the method shown below, I don’t use it often, and I thought it would be unusual enough to merit a photo tutorial.
When it’s time to attach a new skein drop the old yarn and pick up the new yarn leaving about a six inch tail of each. I like to tie an overhand knot to keep the tension even in this spot, but I take it out before weaving in the ends.
Using a tapestry needle weave each end into the stitch next to it to close up the small hole where skeins were changed.
Now comes the fun part! Separate the plies of both strands of yarn. The yarn I used was a 4 ply, so there are 8 single plies to weave in.
Using a sharp needle weave in each end by skimming the needle diagonally through the backs of the stitches. First in one direction…
and then back the opposite way.
When all the ends are woven in it will look like this.
Clip the excess yarn and you’re done!
copyright Knitscene/Harper Point Photography
It may seem like a little extra work, but weaving in ends this way produces such a neat result that it is totally worth it!
Since the Augusta Cardigan was published I’ve received quite a few questions about how to choose which size of this sweater to make. Although it’s called a cardigan, this piece is really more of an over-sized shrug, or what’s sometimes called a cocoon. While I was working on this pattern I posted this rather cryptic photo on Instagram showing my experiments with the shape and construction.
The sweater starts as a rectangle, with the sides of the rectangle forming the sleeves and sleeve seams, (you can’t see the sleeve seams on the finished piece because they’re grafted together invisibly) and the top and bottom of the rectangle forming the back neck, the front edges, and the back at the hip. In photo 1 below you can see how the piece looks flat, before joining the sleeve seams. I marked the points that are joined with the letter A on one side, and the letter B on the other. In photo 2 there’s a piece of tape over one of the A’s, and in photo 3 that side is folded and A is joined to A. In photo 4 the other side is joined as well.
After the sleeves are joined and the basic shape of the piece is formed, stitches are picked up along the bottom edge and worked in a rib and cable pattern. You can see this section in the photo below. The number of stitches picked up is different for each size, and the width of this panel is what determines the hip width, which should be close to, or the same as half of your hip circumference. The other point on the sweater that needs to come close to your actual measurement is the sleeve circumference at the elbow, which is determined by how many stitches are left at the opening after joining the sleeve seams.
Copyright Harper Point Photography
These two points should help you to choose a size, but if you are still unsure, have a look at the back length. Because of the way it’s constructed, the width and the length have to increase proportionately, so the larger sizes are also longer at the back. Because of the way the cable panel is worked, there are only a few rows that are good stopping places in the pattern, so there are three different back lengths for the six sizes.
Remember that this is an open and loose style and the fit doesn’t need to be exact! If you’re still having trouble deciding on a size, you can ask your questions in the Kephren Knitting Studio Ravelry group, or in the comments at the end of this post. I’m excited to see finished and in-progress Augusta Cardigans popping up, so be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook (@kephrenknitting) if you share your pictures there.
Kephren Pritchett 