Flint Knits

**UPDATE! A LIST OF COMMON MODIFICATIONS TO THE FEBRUARY LADY SWEATER PATTERN IS NOW AVAILABLE HERE.**

As soon as I finished knitting Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Sweater on Two Needles (more commonly known as the “February Baby Sweater”) for my niece, I thought, “I need that sweater.” Not for any other babies I know (and I seem to know an awful lot these days), but for me me me.(If you don’t already own Zimmermann’s Knitter’s Almanac, you should. It’s the best $7 you will ever spend on a knitting book. For reals.)

Jenny was steps ahead of me, and had already made her own “giant” version, in baby pink. But I wondered if there was a way to make it more fitted on top, so the whole thing had a kind of 50s a-line shape to it. Enter the top-down raglan cardigan—the easiest sweater structure known to knitterkind.

I started with basic raglan shaping for the collar and yoke, then stuck in a row of eyelet increases just above the bust to add fullness all the way around. (I may still make an icord with pom-poms on the ends, and thread it through the eyelets, like so.)

And ended up with my new favorite sweater.

yarn: Sundara Worsted Merino in Green Over Ochre
needles: 5mm circular
buttons: 7/8″ wooden

Want to make your own? Sweet! I wrote up a free pattern.

[ravelry link]

YARN: approximately 750 (850, 950, 1050, 1150) yards of worsted weight yarn. This lace pattern is especially lovely in semi-solid yarns—I used Sundara Worsted Merino in “Green Over Ochre.”

NEEDLES:
• US 8 (5mm) 32” circular needle, or size needed to get gauge
• US 8 (5mm) double-pointed needles, or size needed to get gauge

GAUGE: 18 stitches / 4” in garter stitch

FINISHED BUST SIZE: 35 (37.5, 41, 41, 44, 49.5, 52.5) inches (bust is the same for S and M, but sleeves are 1.75” larger on size M)

A note on sizing: You can easily make this cardigan smaller or larger by casting on fewer or more stitches at the beginning, and/or doing fewer or more raglan increases—just be sure that your final stitch counts for the sleeves and body are a multiple of 7 so that the stitch pattern works.

My raglan math (such as it is) owes a great debt to Barbara Walker’s Knitting From the Top, and to Laura’s fabulous (and free!) “Easy and Top Down” pattern.

All mistakes are, of course, my own—bring them to my attention at flintknits@gmail.com.

By far the most common question I get on Ravelry is “how did you make the Wicked cardigan?” And when Leslie pointed out that this week marks Fred Rogers’ 80th birthday? Well, in the interest of promoting Cardigan Love, I finally sat down to write out some instructions.

As I began, I realized that it might also be useful to have a much more basic tutorial for turning a raglan pullover into a cardigan. And while I get that those of you asking crave specific directions, seriously, you don’t need them. Just split the front of any pullover pattern down the middle, slap on some button bands, and you’ve got a cardigan. Do it! Show that pullover who’s boss.

But if that doesn’t quite explain it for you, there’s a general tutorial below for how to take a top-down raglan pullover and trick it out cardigan-style, followed by a more specific explanation of what I did to convert the Wicked pattern.

cardiganizing a top-down raglan

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to flintknits.com!

If you have any feedback or suggestions about the site design, please let me know!

In honor of the new home, I have a (very simple) new pattern to offer:

Tipsy Rib Scarf: The Scarf of the Beast

DOWNLOAD NOW!

I named the scarf “tipsy” because of the combination of the deep merlot-colored yarn and the diagonal rib that looks like it’s leaning just a bit to one side.

Then I realized that the finished product measured exactly 6×66 inches. Clearly, it is the devil’s own accessory.

Appropriate for all occasions, you can wear this simple scarf to séances, shopping malls, and church potlucks with equal aplomb.

MATERIALS:
• 3 balls Artfibers Ming (50% silk, 50% merino; 143 yards; color #17) or other worsted-weight yarn
• 4.5mm (US 7) straight or circular needles

There are definitely some changes I’ll make for the second sock. For one thing, I’ll flip the chart to make the right and left sock mirror images of each other.

I’m also going to use a short-row heel instead of Wendy’s fabulous toe-up gusset heel. This was the first time I’d used Wendy’s new tutorial, and I’ll definitely use it again — especially with my high instep. But I think a short row heel will look neater and more compact with this sock, and the stitch patterns have enough flexibility that I think it will still fit well.

Question: Should I also run a line of 1-2 purl stitches along the underside of the cable, to make it stand out from the sole? Initially, I liked how the cable looked melting into the sole stitches, but since I want the purl stitches to run alongside it on the leg, it might make more sense to have them just run the whole length of the sock.

[click photos for larger version]

All in all, I’m pleased with and proud of this little baby, and am thinking seriously about writing out the pattern.

Yay, fall!

On the Marigold pattern, the bottom of page 2 should read, “continuing in stockinette on 32 31 stitches of the back of the leg.”

Thanks to Trixie Stix for catching the error!