This past weekend I invited a few friends to hang out and spin at my house. You can see some pictures over at Maia's blog. My friend Erika was able to join us for a little while before she had to go back to her daughter (who Janine calls "the most beautiful baby"). She brought me a house warming gift that I didn't have a chance to look at until after everyone had left. Isn't it beautiful? I was astounded. It is a technique that I have only seen at Erika's studio. She makes individual layers of felt and then sandwiches them together, stitches designs on them and then cuts out pieces of the pattern down to the different colors. I think it is just beautiful. Thank you so much Erika.
Pictured at left is the swatch I knit with the 3-ply from the previous post. Sorry for the contrast-y picture but I was working at Deep Color and only had bright sunlight or relative darkness to work with. The needle sizes from left to right are 4, 5, 6. I am going to go with the size 4 needles because I like the fabric I got and plan on lightly blocking my sweater. With no blocking I am getting 5.5 stitches to the inch. I haven't decided anything about the sweater except that it is going to be a cardigan. So I have been looking through books and magazines for inspiration and reading Sweater Design in Plain English for technical info. If you are not familiar with this book it is full of great information. The reality is that I know that I am going to make a relatively plain sweater and just need to figure out how I am going to handle the edging, what neckline to use (most likely v-neck since it's my favorite), how to handle the shoulders (raglan or set in), and if I am going to knit it top down or bottom up. Maia mentioned that maybe I should consider knitting it side to side because of the horizontal striping issue. While I agree with her I think I am still going to knit it top down or bottom up. Call it laziness! Regardless, I have to finish test knitting Elfin first before I can cast on so I have some more dreaming time before I have to make these decisions.
Wow! Erika's piece is gorgeous. It looks a lot like reverse applique.
Posted by: Maia | February 06, 2007 at 01:58 PM