KnitburoKnitburo

on knitting and wearing

self published

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.

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.

Alinea cardigan

Alinea is my latest self-published pattern, a sport-weight cardigan that I brought out last month. It’s a beautiful autumn day today so I thought I ought to write a little bit about my favourite autumn cardigan!

I originally knit the first prototype of this design two years ago, and it was one of my favourites for a long time – still is, actually! But there have always been a few details that bothered me a bit – the body was a bit too long and stuck out of all my coats, the neckband at the back neck was a bit too loose and the sleeves slightly too wide. I don’t want to admit how often I get a sleeve caught on a door handle wearing this grey version, though that probably says more about my clumsiness than the design..!

The final version of the design has all of my favourite elements of the prototype – the ease, the lines, the pockets – with more refined proportions and a better fit. It’s a really versatile cardigan that’s easy to dress up as well, which is always a big plus for me as I’m always cold and always happy when I can wear something warm on the off-chance that I need to dress a bit neater! The name, ‘alinea’ means paragraph in Dutch, which I thought was quite suitable, a block of text for a cardigan made up of mostly straight lines and blocks. Read more about it on the pattern page or on Ravelry.