So, once upon a time I had an idea for a knitting column were I’d write about a sweater, giving a brief description of a style, relevant techniques, and a construction method, but no pattern per se. Because I don’t follow patterns so much as elaborate on ideas, and I think it would be fun to read and a good inspiration for people who are comfortable making sweaters but what more ideas/fodder for the design process, which seems particularly relevant as many people who have started knitting in the last few years are becoming more and more proficient.

Needless to say, no one else thought that this was a great idea, and I dropped it for other projects.

But I’ve gotten back to knitting recently after a few months of slow knitting progress, and I’m starting to think about what I’m going to be knitting next (In part because I’m going to have three sweaters that I will probably finish at about the same time,) and I thought I’d resurrect the idea for the old column, though because this is at least theoretically a list of my future projects I don’t think that all of these designs are going to be completely original. Also, just sweaters. Here goes nothing:

  1. I’ve made a version of Henry VIII and I think I’d like to make another. The main problem with my existing sweater is that the yarn pills, and I followed the pattern too closely and in doing so neglected to make a number of customizations that I like to make for sweaters. Like I’d like to have some sort of open/v neck, and I tend to like a deeper yoke, shoulder section, and I haven’t met a Starmore sleeve that wasn’t 5 inches too short. So it would be nice to knit the sweater again (because it was fun) but to modify it. While the two color look works, it might be fun to have black in the foreground, and a couple of different grays in the background.
  2. I have recently gotten re-engaged in this fingering weight sweater that has some light cable work/accents, I’m thinking about starting another such sweater, I have some my eyes on some blue-grey shetland, and I think it might be fun to do a sweater with some more complex cable work. In order to forestall making any great plans (at all) about this sweater, I began by knitting a(n about) three inch strip around middle section of the sweater and then picking up and knitting the body down (and up) from this strip. I never did a gauge swatch, and I don’t think that I ever really counted the number of stitches.
  3. I really like how some cabled sweaters start at the bottom hem without any ribbing, and similarly I like sweaters where some (but not all) of the cables are continued down into the ribbing. I think it’s a cool look, and I’d like to take some of my color work designing habits/notions into designing a cabled sweater, and see how it goes. I’m thinking something with a few wider panels with a nine stitch braid cable running between the panels.
  4. I have a load of DK weight Navy yarn that I think would make for a great Gansey style sweater, with simple cables and texture patterns on the yoke and a fun shoulder strap.
  5. Most of my colorwork projects of the last few years have been escalating in terms of the size of the repeat (both in rows and in stitches,) and I think it might be fun to go back and do a sweater with a larger number of smaller repeats, potentially where the patterns didn’t all synchronize after every repeat. Because that’s the kind of knitting that screams “fun” to me at the moment.
  6. Actually I think my next project will be a medium/heavy weight jacket made from my own handspun, in a garter stitch design that I plan to… elaborate from something that will hopefully be appearing in Wool Gathering sometime this year. The pattern is for a vest, but I’d put sleeves on it, and probably do the yoke/shoulders in a totally different way, but that’s the method to my madness.

And so forth…

Anyone else have a sweater nagging inside of them? One of these something you want more elaboration on?

Onward and Upward!