My First Tattoo

Sometimes a project just takes you over, consumes you, forces you to follow its path. That’s what’s happening to me now.

In a mad rush of spinning at the end of 2010, I finished over 2 pounds of yarn for a yet unspecified knitting project. I blogged about that spinning frenzy on Dec 31. The yarn was spun from two sheep named Lucy and Lacy.

A few days later, an idea for a cardigan came to me: a loose fitting, boxy cardi with embellishments. Here is my very rough drawing of my first thoughts of that idea. As I drew, the embellishments started to look like tattoos to me. So, the sweater will be titled, “Tattoo”. Just a note: I can’t draw.

On the back, I want to put a short central cable pattern at waist level, and then put some dulplicate stitch embellishments – also centrally located – above that. On the front, I want to have a knit-purl stitch pattern in a triangular space with the point at wasit level. The front and back will be knitted from Lucy (grey). The sleeves will be knitted from Lacy (dark grey) and a marl yarn of Lucy Plus Lacy. I want a large collar, and a stiff, short, 3-dimensional stitch pattern for the hem and cuffs (and perhaps also on the outside edge of the collar).

I swatched for several days, first to make sure I had enough yarn, then to make decisions about the hem stitch, the cable, and the knit-purl stitch on the front. For the hem, I finally decided on a stitch pattern that I found in an old vintage knitting magazine that was missing its cover (so I don’t know what magazine, or when it was published; my guess is that the magazine was published in the 1940s). The stitch is called, “Cayce”. Very simple, but with a nice, dense structure:

Here’s “Cayce”:

Multiples of 2 sts.
Row 1 – K1, *yo, sl1 (as if to P), K1, repeat from * across row, ending K1.
Row 2 – (RS) K2, *K the yo and the slip st tog through back of sts, K1, repeat from * across row.
Repeat these 2 rows for pattern.

I also swatched a number of cable patterns (for center back). I decided to modify a cable pattern I found in The Harmony Guide to Practical Knitting Stitches (1983): Pattern VI.1, page 63.

On Thursday, I started knitting the back. After about 7 inches, I decided to change the depth of the hem and the width of the knitted piece. So, I ripped out the knitting and started over. I got up to the neck edge last night.

I would have gotten farther, but after changing the width of the sweater, I realized I needed to spin some more yarn. So I spun 2 more skeins (about 8 ounces) of Lucy. They’re drying now.

Here’s a picture of the back (Lucy), and some of the Lacy yarn, the Lucy Plus Lacy marl, and a pinch of a Lacy plus kid mohair locks that I may use for one of the embellishments.