Hollywell Cardigan
By Megan Goodacre
I can't tell you how exciting it is to see patterns come back to you online as new projects. I couldn't believe how quickly this one, yarnosaurus's Hollywell Cardigan, came together.
I love how it turned out; the fit is great, the colours pop and I love how her dark hair goes with the dark yarn at the base. Such a wearable piece, and wonderfully finished.
It's tricky when you write a pattern, you want to make a note at every decision point. You want (or I do anyways) to talk directly to the knitter with things like "you don't have to do it this way, you can modify it here, you could do the whole thing top down."
But, because you don't know how much experience the knitter brings to the pattern, there's already so much explaining to do, and it's better not to leave a bunch of open ended instructions that will clutter up the page and be confusing to new knitters. And you don't want a 9 page pattern, that's too daunting.
I really wanted all the Study Hall Knits patterns to be approachable. Something a beginner-intermediate knitter could look at and feel, I could totally finish this.
So I really love the smart mods yarnosaurus documented for us. With a little planning and savvy knitting, she customized her own knitting experience. Here are a couple of examples of what she did:
- used a provisional cast on for the sleeves at the base of the yoke, and worked the sleeves down. This means a totally seamless underarm and avoids the grafting, which can be challenging to do tidily.
- used a provisional cast on for the pocket linings and joined the pocket to the body on the go. This is a great way to join pockets and stops them from dangling annoyingly while you work.
And her note about a careful button band pick up being essential, matching left and right fronts stitch per stitch, to line up the stripes, is a great tip, and the kind of thing you don't notice until the very, very, end. But also, wabi sabi, no one will notice if you force the stripes to line up and ignore the rib placement.
I love how it turned out; the fit is great, the colours pop and I love how her dark hair goes with the dark yarn at the base. Such a wearable piece, and wonderfully finished.
It's tricky when you write a pattern, you want to make a note at every decision point. You want (or I do anyways) to talk directly to the knitter with things like "you don't have to do it this way, you can modify it here, you could do the whole thing top down."
But, because you don't know how much experience the knitter brings to the pattern, there's already so much explaining to do, and it's better not to leave a bunch of open ended instructions that will clutter up the page and be confusing to new knitters. And you don't want a 9 page pattern, that's too daunting.
I really wanted all the Study Hall Knits patterns to be approachable. Something a beginner-intermediate knitter could look at and feel, I could totally finish this.
So I really love the smart mods yarnosaurus documented for us. With a little planning and savvy knitting, she customized her own knitting experience. Here are a couple of examples of what she did:
- used a provisional cast on for the sleeves at the base of the yoke, and worked the sleeves down. This means a totally seamless underarm and avoids the grafting, which can be challenging to do tidily.
- used a provisional cast on for the pocket linings and joined the pocket to the body on the go. This is a great way to join pockets and stops them from dangling annoyingly while you work.
And her note about a careful button band pick up being essential, matching left and right fronts stitch per stitch, to line up the stripes, is a great tip, and the kind of thing you don't notice until the very, very, end. But also, wabi sabi, no one will notice if you force the stripes to line up and ignore the rib placement.