Translate

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Pink Purls

I have dubbed this little puzzle Pink Purls.



It is a bit of a play on words. Firstly, and quite obviously, it is pink and has a bit of an iridescence sparkle. Perhaps less obviously, it involves a LOT of purl stitches. All the wrong side rows, and most of the right side rows, involve purling, which many knitters avoid. As a European "lever" style knitter, I don't mind purling. It seems as fast and easy as the knit stitch to me.

Anyway, all this thought about purling made me come up with the name Pink Purl for the project. And what a project. In all my years of knitting I have never come across a sweater constructed quite like this one. You start at the back neck and knit to the armpits. Then you knit the sleeves separately and join them to the back, but NOT at right angles. These are joined hanging in the same direction as the back. Then, you start a series of shaped rows that takes you all the way from one front, around the back and up the other front, eventually even knitting the front button band as part of the one piece. I was almost completely finished knitting the whole piece before I understood quite how it was going to go together.

The pattern is from "Kids Kids Kids: 40 Winning Patterns from the "Knitter's Magazine" Contest, by Ann Regis.

I'll get the finishing done (sewing seams, knitting the neck band, sewing on buttons and lacing the ribbon) today, and have a finished picture for you tomorrow.

No comments: