This original pattern is ©1999 and 2000 by Kim Salazar. Please see
the copyright note at the end of the pattern.
It was originally shared with the KnitList
- (a knitting-oriented mailing list).
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Introduction
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I am just finishing up a T-shirt in a beautiful hand-painted cotton. I managed to make the
yarn "flash" - to deliberately make the color sections line up row by row so that the
thing looks like it has been knit from undyed yarn and then brushed by a watercolorist after
knitting.
I used Blue Heron Yarns Beaded Cotton in the color combo Tulip; - a vivid mix of
oranges, reds, and fuchsia, with a little hint of purple thrown in. I had bought only two of
the 8-oz. skeins - all the store had in stock. There was just enough for an amply sized 3/4 sleeve
V-neck T in women's size large/extra large, but I didn't know that when I bought it. I had to
adjust my planning to accommodate the indefinite quantity. I ended up using every scrap of the
yarn, plus about a skein of Brown Sheep's Cotton Fleece in crayon-purple for the ribbings.
My only criticism of the Beaded Cotton is that as a one-of-a-kind, hand-produced product the skeins
are of different weights. While that isn't a major problem in and of itself, the hang-tags that list
individual skein weight fall off easily and the secondary tags that list the mfr. and yarn name/color
contain a "per pound" yardage rather than the yardage of the skein in question. I knew
neither of my two skeins weighed a pound, but since the yarn store doesn't have a scale handy
(neither do I) I didn't know exactly how much I did have. My estimate was that I probably had enough
for a sweater for myself, if I was flexible in what my sleeve length would end up being.
As I looked at the Tulip, I remembered a Rainbow Mills kit I had knit up for my 2-year old. In it the
colors "flashed." It was a nifty look, and I wanted to see if I could manage it again.
Note that this method will only work for variegated yarns that are bought in hanks rather than in balls
or skeins, and look like they were dyed in those hanks (clear color "sections" spanning the strands of
the hank appear as you travel around it). |
Finding the "Flash Value"
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So I took my hank of Tulip and put it on my swift. I measured the length of one full color repeat
sequence (in my case, the full circumference measurement of my hank). Then I measured the length of
the repeat of the second skein. They were quite close, so I wound my yarn into center pull balls and
went on.
Next I did a swatch of about 30 stitches wide. (My in-the-round and flat knitting gauges are very,
very close, so I didn't bother swatching in the round.) I swatched until I found a needle size that
produced the texture I was looking for. In my case, 5.5mm.
I figured out how much yarn it took me to knit twenty stitches. I did this by knitting several stitches
to start, knitting another one and putting a safety pin through the yarn strand itself at the top of
a stitch, then knitting nineteen. Then (marking where the top of the number-twenty stitch would have
been had I actually formed it) I unravelled back to my first safety pin and measured the length of yarn
consumed. I did this about a half dozen times at various places in the swatch so I had a nice data set,
then averaged my results to give me a final figure.
Knowing how much yarn per twenty stitches I was "eating," I was able to figure out my per-stitch
consumption. Grabbing my calculator, I figured out how many stitches I would need to "eat"
one repeat's worth of yarn and two repeat's worth of yarn. Then I did the math to see what the
circumference of my sweater would be at my given gauge for the "flash value" number of stitches.
Serendipity of serendipities - my "flash value" was close enough to a useful sweater
circumference for my project to continue. So I went about planning a plain V-neck T-shirt loosely modeled
on the Norwegian sweater construction method (tubes later cut to introduce the sleeves, with the cut edges
covered over by facings). I learned how build sweaters this way from Bea Ellis - Queen of Norwegian Sweater
Knitting, and through working a Dale. If you can take a class from Bea herself, go! It opens up whole
new knitting worlds. |
Making the Yarn Flash
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To make the yarn flash, I knew I had to knit in the round. Using scrap yarn, I did a provisional crochet
chain cast on for my chosen number of body circumference stitches. I then knit a stockinette tube
for my chosen sweater body length. I ignored sleeve placement and necklines, and produced a plain old
tube with no bottom ribbing. I cast off when I had enough length.
One thing to note - when I was about six inches shy of my target length, I ran out of yarn in the ball
wound from Hank #1. I took the other ball and roughly matched the color sequence, beginning to knit
from it at a spot analogous to the point in the sequence at which ball #1 ended.
Then I figured out how deep I wanted my sleeves to be at the point where they were to join the body. I
knew I couldn't achieve flash on the sleeves (they weren't going to hit my "flash value" and they
were going to taper from the top to the ribbing) so I decided to knit them flat, and to knit them
side-by-side at the same time so I could guarantee that they were exact matches in shaping and length.
Knowing I was running short of my nifty Tulip color yarn, and knowing that I would be cutting the
sweater body to introduce the sleeves, I decided to make my sleeve facings in my contrasting color
ribbing yarn. At this point I hadn't even chosen my ribbing yarn yet. Armed with the tube body of my
sweater for color/weight matching, I went to my LYS and bought some purple Cotton Fleece. I took my skein
home and wound it into a center pull ball so I could get at both ends.
I figured out how many stitches I needed at the top of my sleeves. Using both ends of my purple yarn,
I cast on for both sleeves side by side. I knit about 3/4 of an inch in stockinette, ending with a
knit row. Then I took both ends of my remaining ball of Tulip, and starting on what would have been
a purl row, began to work both of my side-by-side sleeves in stockinette - starting with a knit row.
This means that my facing was in reverse-stockinette compared to the body of the sleeve.
I continued to knit my sleeves from shoulder to cuff edge in flat stockinette, decreasing one stitch
every other right side row, two stitches from the edge, like this:
Row 1: K2, ssk, knit until 4 stitches are left - k2 tog, knit 2
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: Knit
Row 4: Purl
Row 5: Repeat Row 1.
I kept going until I ran out of my variegated yarn (to be truthful, I reserved about two yards for
seaming). Then I took my ribbing yarn and needles significantly smaller than my body (3.75mm -
Personal peculiarity: I always have to go way down on ribbing needle size) and did a twisted knit
ribbing for about 1.25 inches before casting off. Twisted knit ribbing is a bit awkward when done
in the flat:
Row 1: *K1 through the back of the loop, p1* repeat
Row 2: *K1, P1 through the back of the loop* repeat
Now I had a tube of variegated knitting for my body, plus two matching trapezoids trimmed at the
top with a reverse stockinette facing, and at the bottom with my ribbing. Time for the scary
part. |
Turning the Tube into a Sweater Body
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The first thing I did wasn't so scary. I took my smaller needles, my purple yarn and the
provisional cast on at the bottom of my tube, and picked up the stitches to get ready for
knitting the ribbing. I used the same twist stitch ribbing - this time worked in the round,
and kept at it until I had about 3 inches completed:
Row 1: *K1 through the back of the loop, p1* repeat
Now I had to figure out where the sleeves and neckline were to go. I took a favorite old V-neck
sweater from my closet, and folded it in half down the center, matching side seam to side seam.
I took my tube and laid it out folded in the same manner, stacking it on top of my old sweater.
I figured out where the point of the center V ended, and where the V intersected the shoulder seam.
I took care to use the sizing of the original V WITHOUT ribbing, since I would be adding ribbing
to my final sweater in the next step. I marked these three points on my tube using safety pins.
I took some leftover worsted weight cotton in a contrasting color, and basted a straight line from
the corners of the V-neck diagonally down to the center point.
Then I made my flat sleeves into tubes using mattress stitch. This was quite easy because I had put
the shaping two stitches away from the edges. I didn't bother to seam the facings. I took the sleeves
and laid them in the proper orientation to the body. I marked how deep they went down the
"side seam" of my tube with another safety pin. After I did both sleeves, I made sure the
two safety pins were even across the sweater body (moving one up and one down a snidge to average out
the tiny bit of difference.)
Next I used my sewing machine to stay stitch a U-shape to surround the basted sleeve placement line,
and another close along the body-side of the V I had marked for the neckline.
Then I grafted seams across the shoulder line cast-off from the "side seam" points of my
tube to the points I had just marked for as the corners of the V-neck.
Now for the scary part. I cut out the V-neck area inside the basted and machine stay-stitched lines.
I made sure to leave about 3/4 of an inch "seam allowance" when cutting.
Using my smaller circular needle and my purple ribbing yarn again, I picked up stitches around the
V-neck,on the outside of the stay stitching, starting at one of the grafted shoulder seams. I made
sure to pick up the same number of stitches on the left and right sides of the V and to pick up an
even number of stitches overall. I put a marker in between the two stitches at the centermost
point of the V-front. I then knit about 1.25 inches of twisted knit ribbing around the V-neck.
Here is how I treated the V's centerpoint:
Row 1: Knit in twisted knit ribbing until one stitch before the marker. K2 (not twisted),
continue in twisted knit ribbing.
Row 2: Knit in twisted stitch ribbing to two stitches before the marker. K2tog, SSK,
continue in twisted stitch ribbing.
Repeat rows 1 and 2.
When I had finished 1.25 inches of ribbing I purled one row all the way around the neckline.
Then I began to shape the facing that would encapsulate the raw cut edge of the sweater body.
Continuing after the purl row, I switched to plain old k1, p1 ribbing, This "takes in" a
bit less than the twisted stitch ribbing so I did one row of ribbing before I began to shape my
facing's increases. I knit the facing to match the visible side of the neck edge ribbing, also
about 1.25 inches. Here is how I handled the center front:
Row 1: K1, P1 to match the rib placement of the twisted ribbing. Continue until one
stitch before the marker. Make 1 (any type of non-eyelet forming increase will do), K2, M1,
continue around in K1, P1 ribbing matching the placement of the twisted ribbing below.
Row 2: K1, P1 all the way around to continue the ribbing.
When I had knit the facing wide enough and had the same number of stitches I had started with,
I broke the yarn leaving a very long tail. Using this tail, I secured the live stitches from
my circular needle to the reverse-side-of-the-stitch bars formed when I had picked up the
ribbing's initial row. I took special care to fasten each stitch to the "foot" of its
own column of stitches to keep the ribbing from slanting or twisting. When I was done I had a
neckline ribbing that completely encapsulated the raw cut edges of the body. |
Setting in the Sleeves
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Now I had a tube body, complete with neckband and bottom ribbing, and two sleeves. The
areas where the sleeves were to be sewn were basted. Each basted line was surrounded by a
U-shaped line of stay stitching.
Now was the time to do more cutting. Working one sleeve to completion before tackling the other,
I cut down my line of basting, stopping about 3/4 inch before hitting the bottom of the
stay-stitched U.
I pinned my sleeve into the newly formed opening and seamed the sweater body to the top row of the
variegated color part of the sleeve. The facings end up inside the body. After the sleeve was
fastened in, I folded the facings flat and stitched them to the inside of the body so as to
completely cover the cut edges. Now you can see why they were worked in reverse stockinette.
They end up making a flat and neat stockinette circle running clear around the inside of the
sleeve opening. |
The Finished Product
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After working in the ends, I was done. I ended up with a Norwegian-style T-shirt with 3/4
length sleeves. With the colors of the variegated yarn flashing and dancing across the body
uninterrupted by the introduction of sleeves or V-neck. I used every scrap of my precious
hand-dyed yarn, and didn't have to worry along the way whether or not I would have enough to
do that second sleeve.
The only thing I am less than 100% pleased with is the weight of the double-thick ribbing on the
V-neck, but it is not so heavy that it is noticeable to anyone else, nor does it lie poorly
nor change the drape and fit of the rest of the sweater. |
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