Command Decisions

Recognize this schematic? I mean before someone circled-and-slashed it?

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This is the schematic of the proposed garment shape for Roan's Roan pattern. The reason *someone* has defaced it is that it is hateful to human bodies, and therefore to knitters. THERE IS NO PLACE TO PUT THE WEARER'S NECK. Placing a "garment" of this shape onto a human body will result in (at least) two problems:

1. The pointy shape at the top of the center back will squish down, forming a hump of knitted fabric. Instant Hunchback. We can't see this (or the un-centered chart motifs) because no photos of the back are shown to us. But it's there, my friends, O it is there.

2. The front edges, with no other choice (Science!), will hitch up around the wearer's neck, causing them to shorten in front at the bottom hem. 

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I'm choosing to believe that the original silhouette was a misguided attempt to make things easier for the knitters. Unfortunately, it only makes things ill-fitting.

Luckily for us, the fix is pretty simple. Now that we are knitting our stranded colorwork in the round, as God intended, all we have to do is have a little think on necklines. There's plenty of time to do this as we blissfully work along on our sweater body tubes.

Here are a few neckline shapes for us to think about, and how to make them:

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Copywright Mary Scott Huff, 2017, All Rights Reserved

All of these options are created after all the body tube knitting is complete. We just remove any knitted fabric that would get in the way of our having necks.

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Copywright Mary Scott Huff, 2017, All Rights Reserved

These two options call for a little action as we knit. #4 is done when the body tube is complete up to the base of the square neckline. When the second "mini" steek is cut, the neckline forms a square. #5 is done at whatever point in the knitting you feel like it, and calls for mirrored decreases at regular intervals next to the steek. When the steek is cut, the neckline forms a V.

Both of these options call for the knitter to make a command decision on where the shaping will commence, which is why I mention them to you now, while there's still plenty of time for (most of) you to implement them.

For my Permission Denied sweater, I am going with the tried-and-true neckline #1. I like it because it requires no thought while knitting the body tube, and can be placed with exact precision when I'm ready. How about you, Gentle Readers?

Comment below, or weigh in at the Ravelry Knitalong group and show us! 

The Long and Short of it

If you're knitting along with me on the Permission Denied project, you might be wondering some things at this point in the process, namely, When will I be done with the body tube?

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That's what I'm starting to think about, anyway. Here's where I am in the knitting today. The body measures about 17 1/2" long. I'd like to get in three repeats of the knots band, which I think is a nice proportion. It visually divides the body into about 2/3 knots and 1/3 birds-n-vines. What I have here is about half and half, which is less pleasing to my eye.

If I work another set of repeats from here (one more knot band and 2 more flower bands flanking it), I'll have a body tube of roughly 23 1/4" long, not counting a lower edge treatment. 

Using the extremely precise method of holding the end of a measuring tape up to my shoulder seam at the 24" mark and seeing where the end lands on my body, I have determined that this will be a little longer than I'd like. I usually prefer my sweaters to land at the top of my hipbone, which is only about 21". However, with so much dramatic pattern, it's going to be extremely obvious/ugly if I end this in the wrong place at the shoulder. So much so that I'm willing to sacrifice the sweater's ideal overall length in order to get it right. 

If I were really hyper about the length, I could forego the upper flower band, shortening the sweater by 1 1/2". But I think the symmetry created by "bracketing" the knots bands with flower bands is more important to me than how long it turns out.

The original version of this calls for shaping that creates a slope at the shoulder. I think that's kind of odd for a Kimono, but then, this whole design is odd, so there you have it. I haven't decided whether or not to slope my shoulders, but here are my thoughts on it so far:

There are two ways to create a shoulder slope: 1. Work back and forth, binding off a few stitches with each pass, creating a stair-step edge. 2. Work back and forth using short rows to create a smooth slope. Both options are decidedly fiddly (miserable?) in stranded colorwork. The pattern is going to get interrupted in all sorts of yucky ways, which will require talent and skill in the planning and execution. And you know how I feel about skill and talent (okay for some knitters, but I prefer Sexy Party Tricks).

Now, if I had created armholes for set-in sleeves, there would be no question that I'd need to shape the shoulders. Those things just go together. But since I haven't, I could easily get away with straight shoulder seams. And if I were making shaped sleeve caps for set-in armholes, then I'd definitely need to slope the shoulders. Again, I'm not doing that, so why make it harder for myself? But while I ponder these what-ifs, I know some of you may want sloped shoulders, so here are the questions I'd ask you:

What pattern will you use in the area of the shaping? Will it land right in the middle of a knot border? Can you get away with a solid patch of MC and no pattern at the shoulder? Would you like to chart a new (easier to work flat) motif to put up there? How will that 6th motif look/work with the previous 5? Is this so complicated you'll skip it altogether?

No need to panic: we all still have lots of time left to decide, while knitting to the desired body length. What would you do/are you doing for your own Permission Denied length and shoulders?

Some Birds Get Dressed for a Party

In this post I was planning to show you what my own Permission Denied chart looks like as I work. To do that I had to make sure the marks I'm making on it actually reflect what I am knitting; a situation that is never guaranteed, as my Technical Editor will attest. In fact, one of the big challenges I face as a designer is the fact that my ideas sometimes happen so fast that they literally get knitted into my projects before I have time to properly document them. 

Fortunately for you, Gentle Readers, we are working concurrently on a design that is already mostly fleshed out. Which means that if I come up with any interesting twists on the pattern, you can make the same changes I do, right along with me. Those of you who cleverly arrived a little later at the party, and are still planning your own Permission Denied sweater will benefit even more. By the time you get to the point in the knitting where I changed things, I'll have shaken out any errors in the documentation. Hopefully. Below you'll see where my rounds start and finish: I've marked them with pink bars for each motif. By the way, thanks again, Martin Storey, for a pattern with six (6!) different motif stitch counts. Dude, can you even knit? Just wondering.

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Notice anything different? I sat down to show you where my rounds are beginning and ending on the chart. But then I started to really study the chart from a purely color-centered point of view, and I decided there are a few more things I'd like to change about this design.

1.  In the original, there are no transitions between the bands of color. This is only true for those of us not using the original (unavailable) yarn. Rowan's Colorspun has/had the property of blending lots of colors together, so that the motif bands in the sweater are connected to one another in color by some overlap within the yarn. The original version depends on this quality in the yarn to lend cohesion between the differently-shaded bands.  My yarn, however, lacks any such subtle sophistication. In fact, the uncomplicated, single-hue skeins I'm using look positively primitive when I work the charts as they were originally planned. And that's fine, if the simple look makes me happy, which it mostly does, especially when the charts are really busy, like these are. Vines, and birds, and flowers and braids, O My. But on further reflection, I decided that I wanted to do something to change the abruptness of the color changes between motif bands in my sweater.

2.  I don't love the original, narrow geometric peerie bands between the rows of knots on the upper part of the sweater. Everything down in the lower borders is curvy and natural and soft, and everything in the upper part is straight and geometric. Another disconnect, to my eye. I realized that changing the separator bands on the upper body could solve more than one problem for my project: Repeating both the colors, and one of the motifs from my lower borders (red, blue, and the flower from the birds band) makes my version feel more cohesive to me.

3.  Once I had added the repeated elements to the upper body, I realized that I wanted to pull some of my taupe color down into the lower area. Which I have already knitted. Bother. Not to worry: I can increase the taupeyness down there with a few strategically-placed duplicate stitches. I changed those areas on my chart to show me where to embroider. Knitters following after me could choose weather to do the same, or if you'd rather just work a few rounds with three strands in them. And while I was at it, I added some pops of red in the taupe bands, and, um, I *may* have had a conversation with my birds.

4.  It seems that now I've created this sweater full of jewel tones, and knots that feel kind of Medieval and illuminated, and my birds wanted to get more dressed up. Who am I to argue with a bunch of birds that I haven't even finished knitting yet? I pulled out my imaginary bird jewelry box (like you don't have one, too), and gave them some pretty necklaces, as well as royal crowns. Bird crowns! What could be more obvious?

These really are the diversions that keep me up at all hours. If you'd like to dress up your birds, too, head on over to the Ravelry group, where you'll find a link to my personal chart in the charts thread. These birds are going to one very fancy party, and of course, your birds are invited too. Think they'll invite us?