Because I posted just one smallish photo of my current WIP, I thought it might be nice to give you a guided tour of the stitches and cables I am using in this project.
The side “filler” stitch is seed stitch, also known as moss stitch.
I love the look of seed stitch, particularly with a colorway that has some depth to it. This Cormo yarn is naturally slightly heathered and I think it looks wonderful in seed stitch!
There are five different cable motifs in play.
The first one is a simple 2 by 2 twist.
I am using these as filler cables to frame the bigger motifs and am mirroring the direction of the twist. The pattern repeats every 4 rows. Across the back of the sweater, this cable is used 6 times.
The next is slightly more complex.
It is still a 2 by 2 twist, but it has a couple of purls stitches as “filler” in the middle to make it stand out more, and the pattern repeats every 8 rows. I am using it twice across the back of the sweater.
Next up is a cable/seed stitch combo.
This is a mirrored cable twist every 8 rows and the middle is filled with seed stitch. This works nicely by “drawing in” the filler seed stitch on the sides. I’m using this motif 4 times: twice on each side of the center motif.
Next, a more complex cable — a braid.
This cable is a lot simpler to work than it looks: the pattern repeats every 8 rows and it is pretty easy to follow. You are moving stitches on every right-side row and after working it a couple of times it becomes obvious what needs to be done next. I’m working it twice, once on each side of the back.
The most complex cable motif is actually made up of two different cables: the outer wavy lines and an internal mirrored twist.
The mirrored twist has a 4-row repeat and the outer way lines form the longest repeat in the whole design: 16 rows.
Put them all together and you get this:
I mentioned that I have memorized the pattern. Looking at the piece as a whole, it looks a little overwhelming, but when you break it down into the different components, there is nothing too difficult to remember.
Each motif’s repeat is based on multiples of 4: I have 4-row, 8-row, and 16-row motifs in my design. For me, this makes the whole thing much easier to memorize. For each 16-row repeat of the big cable, it’s pretty easy to remember that the 4-row repeats have cable twists on rows 1, 5, 9, and 13 and the 8-row repeats have twists on rows 1 and 9. Each cable motif is symmetrical, and that makes everything easier to memorize as well.
And lastly, I separate motifs with markers, and that keeps me in line so that I don’t go wild with one cable and accidentally keep extending it into the next cable’s territory. 😉
Aside: my stitch markers are lovely hand made rings purchased from Spindle Cat Studio on Etsy. I’ve made mention of these markers before but it bears repeating. These are by far my favorite stitch markers: there are no rough edges or splits in the rings to catch on the yarn and while they are nicely slim, they stand out so I can easily see them. There are lots of great little knitting doodads for sale at Spindle Cat Studio. If you need a holiday gift for a special knitter, this would be a good place to find something special!
Quick Knit Flower Frenzy
I was sent another great book to review: Quick Knit Flower Frenzy, available to purchase from Annie’s Crafts here.
It is available in both hardcopy and in electronic format. This 50-page booklet has patterns for a number of different flower projects. If you go to the link above, you can view photos of all the different projects. One of the things I really like about this book is that there is a step-by-step tutorial for each project, complete with nice clear photos.
I love how this is done. It is so much easier to learn visually, I think, than by reading a pattern.
Who’d like my review copy? 🙂
To be entered in a drawing to receive my review copy, leave a comment on this blog post by 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Sunday December 2. I’ll select a comment using the Random Number Generator and send the booklet to that commenter.
Speaking of giveaways, the winner of Short Story: Chic Knits for Layering by Cathy Carron is Kathom, who has been emailed. Thanks to everyone who left a comment!
Lucy sez:
“What? The turkey is all gone?”