KnitburoKnitburo

on knitting and wearing

Pattern releases

Strophe pullover

all photos by amirisu

For amirisu’s 17th issue, I designed a luxurious and super easy to wear dropped shoulder sweater, Strophe. Overall it’s an easy and relaxing knit, quite straight-forward, with a couple of big and small details to keep things interesting!

I named it Strophe after the Greek word for turn, though actually thinking about boustrophedon writing (but could you think of a weirder name for a pattern, haha), which is a style where the writing direction changes on every line, from left to right and then from right to left. The reason for this is that there are some extra turns to this sweater. It’s knit from the bottom up, flat (like a cardigan), with stitches are picked up at the fronts to make a band (like a cardigan) which is then joined together at the front – unlike a cardigan. The remaining stitches are bound off for the neck opening. This means you can make the v-neck just the perfect depth for you. It also means you could just not join the fronts and wear it like a cardigan 😉

Another couple of details I like are the bias rib texture, it’s so easy to memorise and wraps really nicely around the back of the neck, and of course the gentle bubble sleeves. The sweater was knit in mYak Baby Yak Medium and it’s so dreamy! It’s light and incredibly soft and the drape is wonderful for this design. The colour Mustard is really beautiful and deep, I’m a little surprised by how much I’d like to incorporate this colour into my own wardrobe.

Rumo cardigan

Meet Rumo, my latest cardigan pattern. “Rumo” means heading, course, direction in Portuguese, and this cardigan is all about direction! The body is knit sideways with a modular construction: using the same instructions and starting at the sides, four pieces are knit and joined together, making up the main body. The fronts are extended with short rows and the lapels are then knit together, up and down.

The sideways construction, the garter stitch and the short row shaping all work together to bring out the beautiful contrasting streaks in the Retrosaria Beiroa yarn. When I first designed this cardigan, I was planning on holding two yarns together to create a marled look, but then I remembered Beiroa! This yarn is so, so cool. I’d been thinking about trying it for years, and I’m so glad I finally did and it was with this design, I think they really compliment each other. Of course, I think this pattern could really make many variegated yarns shine, especially those with long repeats.

Minamikaze tank top

 
 
 This past summer I had a design published in amirisu’s 16th issue, the Minamikaze tank top. It’s a layered tank, with the base layer being a simple a-line bodice with no ease, knit from the top down. The overlay top begins exactly like the base, until the shaping begins to give it that flared shape with the lowered back. Finally, the two tops are joined at the neck and arms.
 
 

 
 
I really like this design, I think it’s understated, feminine, and flattering. The front above the bust is a bit narrower than the back, the straps are wide and comfortable, and even though it’s knit at a loose gauge, the double layers keep it from being see-through. But of course, if you just wanted a simple basic tank, you could just skip the overlay!

Verso tee

For obvious woolly related reasons, I’m a big fan of winter, but after we had an unusually warm couple of days last weekend I realised how ready I am for spring. It was so nice to feel the warm breeze in my hair instead of having it tangled up in a scarf. (Yes, I know I’m calling 16°C ‘warm,’ but it was, it really was! ?) We’re probably going to have to wait a few weeks for the spring weather to return in earnest, but I’ve already started to slowly put away my woollens and bring out my cotton and linen knits.

I designed Verso with spring in mind – it’s slightly cropped, loose and breezy, and with the elbow-length sleeves and knit in a DK weight, it will be great for milder, not-quite-summer-yet days.

The inspiration came from the basic white t-shirt, and thinking about how to add interest to a simple top while keeping it minimal and clean. It’s knit seamlessly from the top down, and the sleeves are picked up from the armhole with the sleeve caps shaped with short rows.

The pleats are assembled with crochet, which is stronger and sturdier than just sewing them in place. I made a fully illustrated step-by-step tutorial of the assembly, which was really fun to draw up as well.

Verso is knit in The Fibre Co.’s Luma, a blend of wool, cotton, linen and silk, which knits up to a fabric with a great weight and drape. I do recommend steam pressing the folded pleats if possible, and Luma takes very well to that as well.

This design is part of The Fibre Co.’s Yarn Support Programme for independent designers. I think their support of indie designers is brilliant and inspiring, and I’m so honoured that my design was chosen for the programme. The pattern is currently available exclusively at WEBS.

Perfin cardigan

All photos by Amy Gwatkin for Pom Pom Quarterly. Illustrations by Elena Skoreyk Wagner.

 
 
Have you seen Pom Pom Quarterly’s new spring issue? This one is all about stamps, with each design inspired by a stamp from a different country, and a couple of really lovely articles about mail and knitting as well. It’s a beautiful issue, really thematic and with such the attention to detail in the graphic design and the paper cut illustrations by Elena Skoreyko Wagner.

My design, the Perfin cardigan, was inspired by this Brazilian stamp. The single, bright red colour was the first thing that caught my eye when I saw it in the mood board, and when I noticed where it was from, I felt I just had to sketch a design with it.

Originally, the idea was to knit the sample in a yarn from the stamp’s country of origin, but in the end we settled on a yarn local to me instead. Because I’m from Brazil myself and emigrated to The Netherlands in my childhood, I really liked the idea of bringing the two countries together – like a stamp might! The yarn is Ovis et cetera’s Shetland DK, spun from Dutch sheep and dyed by the talented Saskia, who was born and raised where I now live. And who, by the way, used actual stamps to ship the yarn to me!

The cardigan itself was inspired not just by design on the stamp but what it celebrates too – the advent of airmail. The stitch pattern was derived from the grid in the background and I wanted to use a single colour like the stamp, so instead of colourwork, the grid is made with eyelets – which makes this cardigan not too warm even though it’s knit in wool, perfect for spring. I also wanted to reference the aeronautical them in a small way, so the double breasted buttons are a little nod to pilots’ jackets.

Inkwell pullover

 
 
 
The new amirisu magazine was published last week, with my newest design – Inkwell. This pullover is made up of 4 panels, with colourwork down the centre and stockinette along the sides. When I first started sketching this, I had been sewing a lot with my bodice block, which gave me the idea of incorporating a princess seam in a knitted sweater.

Originally this was only an aesthetic consideration but when I began designing it, the seam also became a construction feature. The shaping required to make the seam line diagonal on the centre panel is also what staggers the vertical stripes after each horizontal one. On the side panels, the seam line becomes a secondary waist shaping point. I think the seam could also be a great place to add, remove or modify shaping – for example to add bust shaping.

I also made a colour picker so you can visualise some colour combinations you might like, try it here!