You might have noticed by now, that I have a sweater pattern published in the Winter Issue of Twist Collective, Tuin. Isn't that just so cool!?! I'm really proud!
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Photo borrowed from Twist Collective
© Linus Ouellet
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When I saw this
old Slovak embroidery (38 weeks ago, according to Pinterest ), I knew I somehow had to use this in a knitting pattern. I spent a long time thinking about it, wondering what to make, a cowl, a pillow, pattern on the bottom of a sweater... before I suddenly realized it had to be a yoked sweater. I thought it would work, although it would be a challenge to incorporate the yoke shaping into the pattern.
So I first made a small scale swatch, to see if the chart and the increases would work out:
Here it is, it did work out. (This is now
on my needles going to be a child sweater.)
Then to find a yarn for the adult version. I wanted a gauge around 20 sts per 10 cm. Which can result in very heavy garments, which I did not want. So I chose to use two strands of yarn, both from Pickles: Pickles Merino Tweed, and Pickles Pure Thin Alpaca. It's super soft and warm without feeling to thick and bulky. It weighs 517 grams.
A while before, I had read
a blogpost from Áine Ryan, describing the design process for a sweater she made for last year's Twist Collective's Winter Issue,
Luggala. "Aim high", she wrote, having never designed a sweater before, and decided to submit it to Twist Collective. So I thought, if she can, so can I. And the rest is history...
Well, there was a lot of thinking and calculations and knitting. And waiting. First for the answer from Twist, of course. Then for the yarn to knit the sample sweater to arrive from the US. Then for the confirmation that the finished sweater had arrived in the US. (It's a bit scary to send off a sweater across the Atlantic like that, I can tell you.) And then waiting for the publication day. All the time thinking that they would get back to me saying that the sample was not good enough, or that the pattern had so many serious flaws they could not publish it, or something else. But it didn't happen, and the reception has been a great one, I think. There is even
one finished sweater already!
The first Tuin was worked without short row shaping in the back. So it can be worn both sides, as you can see. The final pattern has short row back neck shaping, with the tulip in the middle on the front. There was an error in the first published version, so on
Pinneguri's sweater, the rose is in the front. I like both versions, but I just had to make a choice.
The yarn that Twist Collective sent me, Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted, was amazing. The blue colour was made specifically for this project. The yarn was really nice to work with, soft and bouncy and with a great stitch definition. I used 525 grams for a sweater size 40. If you have the chance to get your hand on the yarn, I highly recommend it. If you're interested in reading about the targhee sheep, you can find some information
here (wikipedia) and
here (US Targhee Sheep Association). The yarn can be found in the
Blue Moon online store.
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Photo borrowed from Twist Collective
© Linus Ouellet
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