Indigo Flowers Sketch--Suggestions?

Cross-posted from my blog.
First of all, thank you my friends for all the wonderful comments on my progress, I feel greatly encouraged. Marnie, thanks for the detailed instructions on doing a great edging; I have that book but did not pay much attention ;-)! Phoenix and Hattie, thank you for your suggestions (I love beads, too).
I suddenly remembered that I haven't done a pen-and-ink sketch for Indigo Flowers Vest yet. How can a design be a design without a line sketch? So here it is: a one minute sketch.

You see, I have finished the front pieces, but haven't started the back yet. Once again I face a dilemma. This time it's about the ratio between lace and solid Stockinette stitches.

As typed on the sketch, the dark hatches represent Calmer and the wavy lines Zephyr.

Which one do you like ;-)?

Sunflower Cami - back to work!

Hey there, remember me? :) My most recent CAL post was two months ago - I didn't realize it had been so long! But in between, I wrote my Masters thesis, and I hardly knit at all during that time period.

I've picked up the sunflower cami again though, and I'm really excited about it! Before my hiatus, I made a swatch and found that I really liked the fabric created by Calmer knit at 5.5 stitches per inch. (Just a little reminder - always write down what size needle you swatch with! Otherwise you might think you knit your swatch on 8s when you actually used 7s and then you will wonder why the 3" that you've knit so far look gigantic.) I decided to knit the front first and use it as a general template to find the optimal placement of the flower on the back -- which meant that I had to figure out the neckline.

My first thought was to give the sweater a really deep V, where the point would hit around the bra band. This neckline seems trendy right now and I think it would be flattering to a variety of body types. However, such a low V requires a plain camisole underneath, and Calmer is so soft that I wanted to be able to wear it right next to my skin. I considered a higher V but it struck me as a little boring - been there, done that! The back of the shirt will provide a strong visual impact and the front should be just as striking without taking over the spotlight.

After a few more sketches and swatches, I decided on a deep keyhole neckline with a frog closure at the top.



I think that this will work really well with the back - it's clean but it's interesting. (And sexy!) I'm going to finish the neckline and armholes with applied i-cord, and I'll probably reinforce the sides of the keyhole somehow so the fabric doesn't stretch too much at the closure point. I am still up in the air about the bottom edge, so I borrowed Marnie's technique of starting with a provisional cast-on, as you can see here:



I sort of want to put a leafy lace edging along the bottom to go with the flower but I'm worried it might be too busy. When I get to that point, I will probably swatch and see. Otherwise, I could finish the bottom with more applied i-cord or a little ribbing.

As for the back, I think I've finalized my sunflower design! Here is half of it (again with a provisional cast-on):



It's a circle inside, a hexagon outside, and the proportions resemble a sunflower. Perfect!

Indigo Flowers II

Cross-posted from my blog.


It's the weather. High temperature and high humidity had successfully prevented me from knitting anything for the past ten days. Instead, I spent my leisure time drawing, sewing, and reading art history books. When I finally picked up the smooth bamboo needles (last night), it was refreshing. The result, my friends, was this piece of Indigo Flowers.


The schematic sketches had been done a while ago. Shown here is the sketch for the sample. There is a bit of waist shaping, and the V-neck starts 2" (5 cm) below the sleeve openings.

There are several things to say about the design. Firstly it is done on two straight needles. I prefer knitting in the round, but when I am not 100% sure about the results--in this case it's the look and shape of the large lace panels--I work on straight needles to save time. Secondly, I started with a front piece instead of the back piece, for I have to see how the lace works at the shoulder, then decide how wide the back lace panel should be. Finally, the back neck shaping is undecided at the moment (see the question mark?); again it is because we are dealing with lace here, we just have to wait and see.


This vest has been sized up to 45" chest circumference, as I consider it a flattering piece for most women. Now that I have a large enough piece, I can see that the lace panel actually provides a lot of ease, and follows the curves smoothly. It seems unnecessary to change the shaping for larger sizes--it suits me well, I'm lazy ;-).

So far it has been smooth and easy, and my projection of the knitting time is surprisingly short (20 hours). I guess it's because of the needle size (US7, 4.5 mm) used. The very simple, 6 X 6 lace pattern has helped too. Only after I bound off the stitches for sleeve opening did I start to spend time thinking about how to distribute the decreases. After some sketching, I decided to decrease over the Calmer part until there are 6 stitches left, then decrease over the garter stitch border of the lace panel. Finally the outer most lace repeat will lose a few stitches--we'll be at the shoulder by then.

All right, that's all for now. I'll keep you updated ;-).

Iris

P.S. One of my friends pointed out that something's wrong with the photos. I have uploaded them again. Sorry for that.

Progress, woo hoo!

I finally got around to getting started with the Roadrunner pattern. I sketched out the original shirt and measured it.

I decided to do an edging on the hem, neckline, and sleeves, with the rest in stockinette. Plain stockinette is, well, plain, but it shows off the lovely fiber, Classic Elite Premiere in a pretty medium lavender color (#5207). I bought it at Webs, which of course has just about every color of everything, but this one grabbed me.

For the pattern, I chose something from Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns: Open Star Stitch. I swatched for both the pattern and stockinette, and I was off!

(Warning: color is embarrassingly inaccurate!)

Just enough to give the hem a little texture and make it lie flat (as opposed to plain stockinette, which rolls).

(Color much more accurate here!)

Then I began the stockinette, and a gradual decrease on either side for a bit of waist shaping--nothing too dramatic, since this is supposed to be a t-shirt with some ease.

So that's my progress so far. I have a lot to think about: how do I make the pattern "curve" around a scooped neckline? How do I create cap sleeves with the patterned edging? Should the sleeves be separate, or should they "grow" out of the front and back pieces? Hmmm...more to come!

Indigo Flowers Lacy Vest

[Partially cross-posted from my blog]

Currently I am into the concept of Contrast. Simplicity versus Extravagance. Casual versus Formal. Night versus Day. And the seemingly opposite elements must be united in one wearable design.

My first inspiration came from the Hermès SS07 collection. Below are some pieces that I particularly liked.


[The photos do not belong to me, and here they are used only for commenting reasons. And why do they look soooo depressed in such beautiful dresses?]

The first two handkerchief dresses are reminiscent of their SS05 collection As the river flows, an out-worldly ethereal collection featuring porcelain white chiffon dresses with fine indigo print.

Porcelain white and indigo: that's the second inspiration.


Fine china, my true love. Such intricate and beautiful tonal effects are achieved with a single color on a plain background. Another example can be seen here; they are basically the same.

The original name for the white porcelain with indigo paintings is Indigo Flowers. By the way, for some unknown reason the formal translation is Blue and White Porcelain, or White and Blue Porcelain. What unimaginative names...

Anyway, that's how I decided to make a long flowy vest with a simple cut. [Look at the third shot from Hermès, I want my cut be as clean. And the length should be shorter than the one in the fourth shot...not too long.] The Indigo Flowers porcelain will be interpreted by using a dusty indigo colored DK yarn (Calmer, that is) as the bones, or the background of the vest, and a silver/pewter colored lace yarn (Zephyr, in this case) to fill in as the flowers. The reason why I did not pick true indigo/cobalt blue and pure white is that I want the vest to be casual yet ladylike.

The idea of combining yarns of different weight is doable if the two can be worked on a same needle size. And I guess you've already got the solution: work the light one in a lace pattern. In this case, this is a perfect solution, for lace is what I want: light and cool to wear, elegant, stretchy. And a good lace pattern can mimic the filigree flowers on a porcelain vase.

The fifth Hermès shot echoed this idea; wispy lace looks lovely (and well protected) with a solid colored vest.


[Click to see a larger picture. Hey that's not me, I do not look like her!]

You see, I love the color combination--one can still see the reference to porcelain, but it's quite subtle and misty now.

The back is not shown in the sketch above; I plan to use a large area of lace. The vest can then be worn with everything backless or strappy, thus making a day-to-night transition smooth and easy. I'll see if I can get that shawl effect.

That's all I have for now. I'll be more than happy to answer your questions.

Splendour Sketch and Swatch

I started on my Kidsilk Haze "top down" sweater. I am using the bright magenta color, which is called Splendour. I think Splendour would be a splendid name for my sweater. I have a rough sketch of Splendour as well as a swatch (in little arrowhead). My design concept was to do a top down sweater with some sort of lace yoke in a single strand. The body would be double stranded in stockinette stitch. Right now I am trying to find a lace stitch pattern that would meet the following criteria:
1) Small number of stitch repeats (in case I want to design the sweater for multiple sizes).
2) Small number of row repeats (again in case I want to design multiple sizes).
3) Gauge of lace is equal to gauge of double stranded stockinette stitch (I want to be able to knit the entire sweater using the same needle just dropping a strand in the front).
4) The stitch pattern looks fine knit from top to bottom.

The little arrowhead lace may meet all these criteria, but I am not sure if it looks good single stranded? I wonder if I need a pattern with better stitch definition?

I also wonder if I need to have some sort of border between the stockinette stitch and the lace? I plan to cast on with a double strand work some short rows for the shoulders and then change to the lace pattern. Should I work a row of garter stitch to give the lace yoke more delineation?

Splendour Sketch


Little Arrowhead Swatch

MY SKETCH

It's going to be a Million times better than this sketch-really. So, the sweater is started at the right bottom front and it is knit in one rectangle and ends at the left bottom front. The back is done by picking up stitches from the back of the collar (it's not really a collar, but it looks like one). The sides are sewn and the sleeves are knit separately and then sewn to the body. It will be very light and romantic.