Knitting and hand appliqué

So my yoke sweater is coming along. This one has a very interesting construction.

In the past, I’d cast on at the neckline and knit the yoke down and then separate for the body and sleeves. In one case there were some short rows to make the back higher. This pattern starts with waste yarn below the yoke pattern. there is some short row work in the main body color and then the pattern starts.

What stranded knitting looks like from the back.

Another interesting element of this pattern is there are about 3 rows with three colors, not just two. This of course makes for a more interesting pattern and is well worth the effort.

I started this sweater on larger needles and yes, it was more than the gauge that the pattern called for, but I though it would simply make for a looser knit sweater. It felt huge, so ribbit, ribbit, out it came and I started over with the smaller needles. I’m very glad I did.

Another advantage of this method is that I can try on the yoke. My big concern was that the neckline would be too open. Another concern I now have is that the blue and yellow are too close in value. This is a problem when you buy your yarn online. The closest knitting store to me only carries hand dyed or bright many hued yarns. They don’t have basic solids. So I ordered online and it’s hard to judge how the yarns will look next to each other. It will be fine, but….

Yoke complete, it looks al little wonky now. But once the weight of the sweater pulls the yoke down and I block it, I’m sure it will be fine.

Next I removed the waste yarn, did the tedious job of picking up 25o stitches and am now knitting down. There is more pattern at the bottom of the sweater as well as the sleeve edges. Otherwise, I’m in a stage of just knitting the green. There is some shaping so that will keep me on my toes.

I am continuing to make hand appliqué blocks.

So far, only flowers, but since this is Baltimore album inspired, there will be baskets, maybe a ship, maybe people. I may combine larger and smaller blocks. All ideas I’m toying with.

I am working off a pattern for this block, but the placement of the elements is more freehand, so the block won’t be completely symmetrical.

Great news, I just signed up for a class at Road2CA, with Rosa Rojas Rienda. She developed the Appliquick method. I am really enjoying her tools. The class is a master Hawaiian class. We will design our own Hawaiian style block. Her sample is quite large, I am very interested to see how this goes. Working much larger, not on small pieces. Anyway, I have to wait for January for that. Something worth waiting for.

Leah

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