Smouldering ashes

Firstly, I apologize for the horrible quality of this picture. It’s a photograph of a pencil drawing, made distinguishable in a photo-editor. All elements are at work against me.

This is a design that has been running around my imagination like a small child who has ingested a rather alarming amount of sugar. Suffice it to say, I love it dearly, but I’ve only been able to work with it in small doses before stepping back and letting the wild ideas wear themselves out. I’ve discarded wild ideas like mosaic knitting, and three-color-rows, and even cable-stitches carried in a separate color. Regardless, the design is still rather intimidating to anyone but the most ridiculously ambitious. You know, someone like me. In short, it is a thigh-length jacket with wrist length set-in sleeves. The sides are slit to the hip, and the neck is finished with a mandarin collar. The entire piece is fair-isle, and the complicated part comes in the design on the back. I have decided the only way to execute it satisfactorily means having a combination of fair-isle and intarsia. I’ve settled on this as the least manic of my options!

I have also decided each piece will be knit flat and sewn together. The mandarin collar will be double-knit, but I am still undecided whether the corresponding trim on the sleeve cuffs and the center front and hem will also be double-knit. I have my heart set on a silk fabric lining, and cutting the fabric after the pieces have been knit individually and blocked is likely to be my best plan of action. The silk lining is both practical and indulgent. It could be a cheap slippery polyester, but I’m a fiber-snob, and so it will be silk. The purpose is the lining is so that I may make a close-fitting jacket, but still be able to put it on easily over my clothes. This is the same reason store-bought clothes have a silky (though usually polyester) lining.

The idea started when I found a chart of a 16th century German illumination in the book Here Be Drolleries by Nancy Spies. The border is also from the same book. It’s a Spanish illumination from the 8th century. The filling fair-isle I designed on my own.

I do not have any current plans to publish a pattern of this. However, I am taking diligent notes, just in case I happen to change my mind. The designing has been heavily assisted by such books as Knitwear Design Workshop by Shirley Paden, and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. I highly recommend both these volumes. There is a wealth of knowledge that can only enhance one’s personal library.

I have a silly impulse to hoard this information, keep it close at heart, and make my jacket in the deepest darkest secret. However, I do want to document every step of this endeavor, and… what else do I have this website for? XD

The next step is to get the yarn. I have it ordered, and it should arrive sometime in the next month to six weeks. I’ll keep you posted!