Kauni Sweater: part 3: Casting On

So now I have my swatch and now I have to decide what I want to do. I really like the 2nd from the bottom pattern, so that is the pattern I chose. I like the small pattern and how it captures the colors. Also from the swatch I have my gauge and my stitch pattern. So now I need to pick a sweater pattern. I got out a bunch of my different pattern books and looked through them to see what sweater shapes I really like. I decided that the pattern that I liked the best for what I am doing was the Autumn Rose Pullover by Eunny Jang from the Simply Shetland 4 book (Rav link). I like the scooped neck, waist shaping, and 3/4 sleeves.

There is only one problem: gauge. See it would be super simple to find a pattern that has the same exact gauge and simply plug my own pattern into it, but who wants things simple? So I started doing some math. First off I found my size in the Autumn Rose Pullover. I looked at the CO number and divided it by the stitches/inch that the pattern called for then multiplied it by the stitches/inch that my gauge swatch told me I was actually getting. Then I adjusted the number based on the repeat in my pattern, which is 6 sts. A stitch or two won't really change the size of the pattern, so it is easier to adjust smaller pattern repeats than bigger ones. I then can do this same math for the rest of the numbers in the pattern. Adjusting where I see fit.


So now I have my CO number and I need to choose an edging. The last thing I did before I CO was I looked at the balls of yarn. Now if you notice the one ball goes purple, blue, green, yellow, orange red, and the other ball goes red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple from the center out. This is bad, because it means that if both balls are pulled from the center than eventually the colors will cross and disrupt the colorwork pattern. So I could either rewind one of the balls or I could just take one strand from the outside and one from the inside. I decided to go with the 2nd option!


I decided to go with a rolled hem rather than ribbing because I thought it would look nicer in the Kauni yarn. One of the nice things about this yarn is that lots of people have knit up lots of different things on Ravelry, so there are plenty of ideas to be had there. For the hem I used one of the balls of yarn and a figure-8 CO over 2 circular needles. I then knit on one circular needle, joining it in the round, for about 2 inches. Then I folded the hem, bringing the needle from the CO up to the working needle. I knit through one stitch on each needle until I had knit all of the sts on the needles. This freed up one circular needle and neatly folded the hem. Now I don't have to worry about sewing it down at the end of my sweater.

Next time: Waist Shaping

Check out my previous Kauni Sweater posts here.

Kauni Sweater: part 2: Swatching

So after I sketched and found as many ideas as possible I decided I would swatch out a little tube to see what the patterns looked like knit up. I chose a #4US. The yarn is a fingering weight and I know with colorwork I tend to knit a bit tighter, so I thought a #4US would be perfect.


Here is my swatch. I started randomly with two different colored ends. One thing I did notice was some of the patterns had a tighter gauge than others. Most of the patterns are balanced the only one that isn't is the very bottom one. This was a little experiment of my own just to see what the kauni would do with an unbalanced pattern. I really like it, but I think it is better suited to solid non-color changing yarns.

After swatching I took lots of pictures of the sample. Then I measured each section and took careful notes of stitches/inch and rows/inch. I also wrote down my thoughts at the time. For instance I noted which ones I thought would look good with the kauni yarn and which ones would look better with solids. That way if I ever decide to make another sweater with the designs I already have my thoughts and notes available.

Then I took my swatch out. Typically I would have liked to save my swatch. However, I have a limited amount of yarn. I am more concerned about running out of yarn since it has been years since I purchased it. I don't know whether I will be able to match the dyelot again, so I have to be careful with every bit of yarn!

Next time: picking a pattern and casting on!

Kauni Sweater: part 1: Design

A couple of years ago I purchased enough yarn to knit myself a kauni sweater. I first thought that I would knit the Kauni Rainbow Cardigan (rav link). I loved how the colors work with one another, the pattern is simple and wonderful. However, horizontal stripes don't look particularly flattering on my body, so I put off working on the sweater. I found many more patterns, mainly by Ruth Sorensen that are simply breathtakingly beautiful, but I just couldn't settle down to just one design. Then I saw Joan Schrouder's kauni sweater (rav link) and I was intrigued. I messaged her on Ravelry since she didn't have the pattern in her project inventory. I wanted to know where she had found the pattern. She said she had designed the pattern herself, but the colorwork pattern came from a discontinued Alice Starmore book. Well that was a dead end, since Starmore books run around $200 on ebay, which is a little too much for me to spend.

However, Joan encouraged me to try sketching out patterns on my own. She said the important thing with the kauni is the pattern should be balanced with equal amounts of background and foreground stitches. That way there will never be a spot where two colors meet in the pattern. With an unbalanced pattern one of the colors will be "eaten up" faster than the other meaning that eventually two colors would be on top of one another and the pattern wouldn't show through. It also means that there is the possibility of running out of one yarn or the other before the sweater is finished. Two things I definitely want to avoid.


So I sat down with my sketch book of graph paper and tried out several different patterns. I searched through several of my books for inspiration. My original idea for my own pattern was to knit something that looked like lattice work. I kept thinking it would look really good in the kauni yarn. Besides diagonal lines in fashion are supposed to make a person look thinner and taller, which who could argue with that? I sketched out about 4 different ideas and then took 2 more from my Sensational Knitted Socks book. The one above is one of my favorites. It is based off of a rosepath weaving structure. As you can see it has an equal amount of background and foreground stitches. As in there are 40 background stitches and 40 foreground stitches.

You can see my current progress in my Ravelry Notebook.

Next time: Swatching