I have found, over time, that the sweaters that I wear most are lightweight, which means thin yarn, small needles and lots and lots of stitches. Fortunately, I am knitting all of the time, anyway, so lots of stitches don’t scare me. Agate Ripples is a lot of knitting, but I enjoyed working on it, and I am going to LOVE wearing it. It is knit entirely from stash, Koigu fingering weight that I have felt guilty about not using for years. There are a few varigated skeins and a few solid color skeins, so predicting how the striping would look wasn’t really possible. It was a big leap of faith. Fortunately, over large areas the randomness just “works”. I know this, so I deliberately trusted my instincts on when to change yarn, had a good time doing it, and didn’t look at what was on the needles (much). I tried to rotate my yarns consistently, and kept an eye on how much yardage I had left for each colorway. If I knit another one, I might be braver and go for more wider stripes, next time. Or greater contrast in the colors. Or…or… who knows? The possibilities are endless!
If you love stripes and want tips on what wonderful colorwork can be achieved using one skein of yarn at a time, join me for my Craftsy class, Simply Stunning Colorwork. Click HERE to get special pricing on the class, with my affiliate link.
shoulder detail
I love how stripes look in reverse stockinette. This is the inside of the front. The professional finish on the collar is produced by binding off the collar stitches together with picked up sts on the front. It is a tedious process, but worth it because the ends are all hidden in the collar, and the seam is perfection.
Back!
From the front. I can pin it in the front, if I want to, but probably will wear it open most of the time. Especially since the inside of the sweater is as pretty as the outside.
I am very happy with how it worked up, and can’t wait to show it to Laura Bryant at Stitches Texas!
By the way, registration for Stitches West is open, and I am teaching several favorites, as well as new classes that I am very excited about. One of my classes is sold out, already (!), so don’t wait to check it out. It is nice to have this event to look forward to, and February is going to come fast…
