In the past three months I have completed several types of projects. Among them are also 4 garments, ie two sweaters and two cardigans. They have been created with Susie Myer’s Contiguous method. I have written about my impressions of this method before, when I created the first two garments.
I generally like it’s concept, that’s why I particularly use it for custom made sweaters, which are made-to-measure and usually also have specific design elements. For these four projects, the basic construction remained the same, but I added a few new design elements, such as different necklines, increasing styles and some lace.
Three out of four are made with DROPS Lima. Lima is very nice yarn, warm, soft to the touch and does not pill with use. I haven’t used it for myself yet, but I can see from this project that it knits up really quickly and is quite durable. It is a DK weight, which makes it a good yarn for sweaters and cardigans that are not too bulky, nor too thin.
The fourth sweater is made with Katia Azteca. I am a complete sucker for color and multicolor yarns are no exception. This Aran weight yarn has such beautiful colorways, that it is difficult to choose just one. Hopefully, in this case, my friend chose the color herself. The yarn does pill a little bit, but it is warm, soft and offers generous yardage. For this example, I used only 3 skeins! Where normally I would need 6 or 7.
#1: The Black Cardigan
Here I added lace panels to the upper body part of the piece. At the same time I created a subtle V-neck shape for the neckline. I did not join to work in the round for the body and left out a few stitches from the total circumference in order to pick up and knit the button bands afterwards.
Fun fact: these button bands were picked up and knitted in the dark, in the cinema, while watching a movie. First time trying that with black yarn! I generally tend to avoid working with black for two reasons; firstly, I prefer color; secondly, I do not like how black ‘hides’ stitches and makes reading your work difficult.
For an alternative, but neat neckline finish, I used a row of reverse single crochet. I struggled to combine lace and increases invisibly. It slowed me down a little, but after a while I got the hang of it and was able to use the same concept in the next project as well.
#2: The Pink Sweater
With a different basic lace pattern proper V-neckline, this sweater was faster to work with. Another design addition are the ruffles in the front and the back. The final version of the ruffles is actually not in the pictures. The ruffles in the back were removed and the yarn was used to lengthen the ruffles in the front. Adding another ball of yarn, the final length reached 4 times that of the picture. Quite volumnus, but also fashionable. The ruffles were worked in crochet, for speed, easy addition and customization.
#3: The Mustard Cardigan
In this simpler cardigan, I played around mostly with a new idea on increasing stitches for the neckline. Usually, when working from the top down and wanting to create a V or crew neckline, one has to increase at a certain rate and next to the neckline stitches. Here, I thought of taking that concept from the opposite side, namely, making all of the increases next to the shoulder and arm stitches instead of the neck. The result? The neckline is indeed round, but appears so only when worn. The body form in the pictures does not make the cardigan any justice, because it has no arms; the technique worked better than it appears. It produced a funny shape and a round line of increases. The cardigan is comfortable to wear and at the right size.
For the button bands and to make the design a little bit more interesting, I created a vertical crochet lace band. I think it makes the style a little bit retro, but I like it. It works well with the buttons. By the way, the buttons are from the shop.
#4: The Multicolor Sweater
Pretty standard sweater. The yarn is so busy with colors, that no additional design elements are required. I used some slip stitch crochet around the neckline, to stabilize it and also create a minimal and clean finish.
The only modification I performed and was quite happy with, was the shoulder ‘seam’. The Contiguous method tutorial calls for 2 stitches for the shoulder seam. Here, I worked with 6 instead and created a saddle shoulder look. Can this be called a proper saddle shoulder? I have never worked something like this before and I quite like the result. Might as well use it again in the future!
