Adventures in 3Dknitting: the Ojai Top

Doug went to Vancouver last week and was able to take Emma her birthday surprise sweater.  (Given that her birthday is in May, it was definitely a surprise!)

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This is the Ojai Top, designed by Andrea Babb, which was published in Wool Studio: The Knitwear Capsule Collection from Interweave Press.  I knit it with Dye for Yarn Fingering Merino with Silk in the colour Fading Stormy Night.

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I finished knitting this before we went to Malaysia but was waiting to get modeled shots before showing it to you.  (It doesn’t look like much on a hangar!) I had worried throughout the construction about how it would look and fit once blocked.  I think we can safely say that I needn’t have worried.  It looks pretty great on Emma.

This is an interesting piece to knit.  The loops are actually three-dimensional, as you can see in the below photograph:

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As you start to build up the loops, the piece looks a bit of a mess; I referred to it as a Kraken in an earlier post.  You can read more about its construction and the beginning stages of knitting Ojai in these posts: here and here.  I struggled a bit when it came to ending off all of the threads (each loop has two threads to end off); what to do with the hole left in the fabric from creating the loop?  The trick is to not tack down the loop when weaving in the ends, but to sew the hole together in a way that reinforces the tunnel structure of the loops.

I had also worried about my choice of yarn.  First, because I substituted a yarn with 25% silk content.  When I was knitting it, it felt very unstructured and I was wishing that I had used a 100% wool yarn as indicated in the pattern.  But the real point of contention was the colour.  I ordered it over the internet, and when it arrived, it had more variegation in the skein than I thought it would.  I decided to use it anyway, with the hopes that the finished garment would be very drapey and look like flowing water.  It is interesting that Doug and Emma chose to photograph it next to a lake where it really does seem to flow like water.

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They had driven up to see a friend (hi, Jill!) who lives at Lilloet Lake, in British Columbia, and they took these photos there.  Beautiful, isn’t it?

I knit this in the small size.  When I washed it, it grew by a few inches, so I was very careful not to stretch it and didn’t pin it.  It is knit sideways so the extra length goes into the width (thus into the sleeve, which I think is good in this case as Emma is tall).  I do think that the short side is rather short.  If I knit it again I would think about adding some stitches to the cast on so that it gained a few inches in length. (Perhaps Emma would disagree?)

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Emma notes that the one armhole is a bit tight.  I originally sewed the side seam to the length indicated and then crocheted around the armhole as instructed (which allows the tubes to be tacked down properly at the armhole).  However, I felt that it was too tight, and re-did it so that there would be an extra 2 inches of circumference around the arm.  It could have used with an even more generous arm width and I may re-do it for her in future.  (This does not involve any re-knitting, but just making the side seam shorter.)

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I am very happy with how this turned out.  It is a striking piece and is sure to be a conversation starter.

Cascading cables

A few weeks ago, I showed you some photos of an epic yarn tangle and the start of a new project.  After hours of de-tangling, the new project looked almost as tangled as the knots:

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I began to think of this as “The Kraken”, a 3-D piece in which the cables are built up separately giving the interim apperance of little tentacles waving around.  In fact, the pattern is for a pretty summer top with lots of drape and cascading cables which flow across the fabric.  Here is the pattern photo:

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© Interweave / Harper Point Photography

The pattern is the Ojai Top, and is designed by Andrea Babb.  I think it is pretty and very different.  Despite a clear lack of knitting mojo and opportunity this last month, I have made some progress, and the project is now taking on a more recognisable shape.

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It is very bright and sunny today, so I am having a hard time getting the colour to photograph well.  It is actually a deeper blue that it looks here. The piece is knit from side to side in one piece.  I have just finished the last cable cross, so what remains is a lot of stockinette which will form the drape over the left shoulder and sleeve.  The right arm is bare, while the fabric on the right shoulder is ruched from the cables.

I am still not convinced I made the right choice in yarn, however.  I decided to go with a yarn with some silk content, rather than the pure wool used in the project pattern.  (I’ve used DyeForYarn Fingering Merino with Silk, which has 25% silk, in the shade Fading Stormy Night.)  The blocked swatch looked good, but the unblocked piece looks messy, without the stitch definition I would prefer.  I am also very unconvinced by the colour variations in the yarn; I thought that it would look like flowing water, but so far I’m not seeing it.  The truth is, I love hand-dyed yarn in the skein, but I am not always a fan when it is knit into a garment.  My feeling with this project is that it will all come down to the blocking: either it will be totally cool and interesting, or it won’t.  And on that very profound note, I’ll stop writing and start knitting.