Releasing on August 2nd, my next pattern is fun to knit + going to be a great addition to your fiber festival fall wardrobe.
My design process for this one was different than anything I ever had done before- instead of lots of not-so-great quick drawings, I started with the ai platform midjourney and prompted a cable sweater and kept building from there. Some of my early "sketches" are below.
I liked the diamond-y shape created by the cables with the stuff happening in the empty space between the cables. My prompt to get the above was "imagine/a woman wearing a chainlink cable multicolor yellow black red olive coogi sweater street photography style whole body". I think they nailed the style. I started with the word Coogi replaced with DEGEN but it seems like they don't know me yet. Maybe thats a good thing.
When I was working through design of this sweater I knit 3 versions to make sure the shaping was elegant when it interacts with the cables. The above version (so tactile and delicious) I knit in Manos Del Uruguay "Ideal" base in colorway Zinnia. This is a new base for them. It is 100% Polwarth wool and is a worsted weight yarn. Because of that it has more dimension than my other versions which were knit in Madeline Tosh DK which is a superwash yarn. Its heavier and drapier. For the Tosh versions, I added a stripe detail to make it a little sportier. The rusty color of the main image is Tosh DK in colorway "Carolina Reaper" with stripes of colorway "Salt."
The above version uses Salt as the main color and Caroline Reaper as contrast.
The sweaters are knit in the round from the bottom up with the sleeves knit on. One of my favorite aspects about the sleeve shaping is that the sleeve gets shaped on the same rows as the bobbles which means there is very little tracking to do-by the time you are knitting and decreasing the sleeves you will have the cable pattern fully memorized. I don't love needing a pattern in front of me the whole time I am knitting.
The sweater is a genderfree fit boxy sweater with just one detail that makes it a little more femme and that detail can be omitted. The sleeves really narrow in at the cuff giving a slight bubble shape to the sleeve. If you worked the same needle size as the pattern but eliminated the rapid decrease you would have a standar tapered sleeve. The pattern is graded from XS-5XL. The model is wearing size Medium.
I hope you will consider knitting it- maybe I'll even see you wearing it at Rhinebeck or Sacred Sheep this fall.
Release is August 2nd
