This week, we thought we’d share with you a few additional details about our new pullover pattern, Elevate.
Kate found inspiration for this stunning yoke on one of her early morning coffee walks to downtown Brattleboro last spring. While she was waiting at a crosswalk she noticed the manhole cover under her feet and she decided that its simple geometry was compelling enough to translate to a stranded yoke.
She spent the early months of our quarantine holed up at home making several prototypes, working out the details of the yoke design and shaping to ensure the perfect comfortable fit. As she worked on this design with various skeins from her stash, she found that her favorite samples used vividly dyed worsted spun yarns paired with Spinnery woolen spun yarns for the most dramatic effects.
Kate found that the blank canvas created by the almost matte fuzzy finish of Simply Fine contrasted beautifully with the lustrous shine and stitch definition characteristic of the worsted spun yarns that she was using as her contrast colors. And thus the second intention of this pattern began to take shape.
She hoped that with a pattern like Elevate, she could encourage knitters to experiment with blending yarns from different producers in the same project. Perhaps they might already have the perfect skein of fingering or sport weight yarn in their stash that was purchased on a whim and was just waiting for the chance to be the focal point of a special new garment.
This pairing of disparate yarns could potentially introduce knitters to new yarns, new vendors and new friends in the way that a stroll through a fiber festival would normally allow. In the absence of this year’s crafty gatherings, Kate hoped that with her design she could somehow recreate the sense of community, play and regenerating enthusiasm that she enjoys when festival season comes around.
Her next challenge was to find a couple of models who could demonstrate the unisex appeal of this sweater; and she wanted to find a pair who would be comfortable being photographed together, unmasked. Happily, Lauren’s kids Magnus and Zola came to our rescue. They are local siblings who were quarantined together, and were willing to be photographed one morning this summer in exchange for breakfast at the local food co-op (steps away from that manhole cover that started us on this adventure).
Shown on the left – MC: Shown in MC: Stargazing Green Mountain Spinnery Simply Fine Skinnies CC: Java Jive Fiber Optic Yarns Short Unified Gradient (225 yds) and on the right – MC: Woodsmoke Green Mountain Spinnery Simply Fine Skinnies CC: Log Cabin Sun Valley Fibers MCS Fingering.
One last detail that we’d like to share with you concerns the fit of this sweater.
You’ll see in the photos above that Kate (at the top of the page) and Magnus are wearing the same sweater. It has a finished chest circumference measurement of 38″. On her that means that there is approximately four inches of positive ease and on him there is less than two. The overall length of the sweater from neckline to hem is 26″ which fits him perfectly and is about five inches longer than Kate would prefer. With a french tuck into the waist of her jeans, (thank you Tan France from Queer Eye), it feels cozy, looks stylish, and works perfectly.
Since the pattern is constructed top-down, modifications are easily made. We recommend that you block and try on the sweater after separating the sleeves so that you can customize the length of the body and sleeves for a personalized fit.
Kate modified her second sample, shown here on Zola (who is wearing her sweater with about 6 inches of positive ease). Kate made this sweater for herself and so customized the length of the sweater to hit her just below her waist and the sleeves to be 3/4 length. This change meant that her MC yardage requirement was reduced by roughly 300 yards.
The pattern as written does not include body shaping, for a unisex appeal; so folks who would prefer a closer fit with close to no positive ease, may want to add waist shaping.
We hope that this additional information about our new Elevate pattern answers some questions that you might not have known you wanted to ask. If you find that you have a few more questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to Kate at spinnery@spinnery.com.