What's On My Needles - August 2024

Super excited to say, that I finally had time to cast on a pattern I've loved the look of, from a designer I really love: The Silversmith Sweater by Tressa Weidenaar! I've knit a number of other Tressa patterns - maybe that'll be another blog post sometime? - and loved them all, but I especially love the easy, perfect way her sweater patterns fit, and their geometric designs!

I had some time this July to cast on the Silversmith, and I know it will be ready for me to wear this fall! Originally I wanted to follow the same color palette as Tressa's sample - which isn't usually the case for me. Typically I like to find my own color combinations, but I loved the desert motif of this one!

But, I ended up with something slightly different when I found yarn from my friend Christine of Blue Heron Farm VT. Christine's organic yarn comes from her Border Leicester Romney sheep, raised on her farm in the Champlain Islands, where Christine also grows organic vegetables that feed her community and beyond. She naturally dyes these yarns, and I immediately loved the "Autumn" colorway, dyed with walnut, for the main color. She helped me pick two more for contrast - the purple, dyed with logwood, and the blue, dyed with Saxon Blue. Unlike indigo, Saxon Blue is a lot more colorfast, and produces a vivid color while still being a natural dye.

I've just finished the yoke and moved onto the body, and it's going really quickly! I often add my favorite mods to patterns based on how I like to wear my sweaters. I'll note them below if they're helpful to you, and would love to hear what tried-and-true mods you like to use!

• Cable cast on - I like to use this for neckline and hat brim cast ons, because I don't have to estimate yardage I'll need. I realize this isn't that logical, as it's a slower cast-on method and doesn't look right or have the right tension for every project, but I'm just set in my ways now, I guess!
• Neckline - I like a fairly close-fitting neckline, so I often cast on with a smaller needle or fewer stitches. For this pattern, I used the recommended needle size but cast on fewer stitches, then added the stitches needed for my size right before the row where I began short row shaping.
• German short rows - I love them. I always substitute them for other short row types!
• Extra stitches in the body - when I'm knitting a top down, one-piece garment in the round, I like to add stitches to the body immediately after separating for the sleeves. I'm a curvy girl, and I need some extra room in the tummy! Adding stitches here also gives my sweater some added ease that I like in the waist, but not the shoulders. I will typically distribute these as M1L's, primarily across the front of the sweater (our backs don't usually have as much curves as our fronts). So if I'm adding 18 stitches for another 4 inches based on gauge, I might put 12 inches in front, and 6 in back.
• Extra length from underarm to hem - if you've got curves - chest, belly, hips - the total length of your sweater will be shorter than it looks on the model wearing it who may not be as curvy as you. Nine inches, even twelve, disappear pretty quickly when they are swooping over all your huggable parts! I actually keep a couple measurements in mind for length - my favorite inches for a cropped sweater, at-hip, and mid-length - but I almost always have to add more inches than the pattern calls for, to achieve the length it intends. And of course, have a little extra yarn on hand for it!