Saturday, May 22, 2010

St Margaret Cardigan

I decided to write up a pattern for doing a complex Celtic-style cable sweater from the top down. I designed two Celtic Knot cable patterns based on various sources, including Elsebeth Lavold’s "Viking Knits", Alice Starmore’s "Aran Knitting", “How to Draw Celtic Knotwork” by Andy Sloss and the celtic knot generator at http://birrell.org/andrew/knotwork/ , which is fun to play with. I'm calling it "St.Margaret". This is a test-knit for the pattern and the charts, and so far I like it a lot. I am doing it in cotton, though, as I wanted a summer version, but definitely I prefer to work this kind of cable design in wool, as the cotton doesn't give as you knit with it, so it leaves holes. Hopefully that will block out when I'm done.
 Writing up the pattern is a challenging exercise! So far it is around 18 pages, with huge charts and lots of instructions. I have a marvelous test-knitter, who is meticulously going over the pattern with me as she knits it for herself, so I know I am not the only one who can knit this! Hopefully it will be done soon and then I will offer it for sale in my Ravelry Store (Jeri Rigged Designs). Of course, I'm knitting my own sweater, and today I am almost finished with the sleeves, done on DPNs. I will finish the body after the sleeves are done, and I'm probably going to put pockets on this sweater, as I’m always trying to find my keys. …

5 comments:

Ingrid said...

Wow, you did a great job! What a nice sweater! (And suprisingly blue!)
Best, Ingrid

Melody Johnson said...

Gulp. That's a lot of pattern pages! But knowing cables and diamonds, once you get started, it is easy to follow. Just a gorgeous design.

Anonymous said...

Zoinks! That is a healthy dose of cabling, that is. Gorgeous!

Unknown said...

This is awesome and can't wait to see it on Rav. I'll be watching for the pattern. Lavold & Starmore are two of my favs- nwo this! congrats.

Andy Sloss said...

That's gorgeous! Probably the most complicated object I've yet seen using a celtic design that hasn't been copied from Bain. Congratulations.

Bit miffed that Mr Birrell doesn't mention me, despite using the system I worked out, but ho hum. I played around with a simple Design your own knot program in Flash several years ago that you might have fun with: http://www.51055.com/portfolio/makeknots/makeknot.html

Keep up the good work!