One of the work projects that has been keeping me very quiet over the last few months is Kate's book. I'm the Technical Editor for Colours of Shetland, and it has been such a joy to work with her and Nic (the ever wonderful Art and Production Editor and all-round fabulous pal!) on bringing these designs and essays to print.
As soon as the pattern and snapshots of this design landed in our DropBox folder, I knew that this was going to be the first design on my needles. It's a hooded cardigan with pockets, and it's in completely perfect colours for me. It is the garment design that complements the Northmavine Hap that Kate shared on her blog last week: Northmavine Hap.
As always with Kate's designs, there are some exquisite finishing touches - not only do the hem and cuffs have folded facings, but there is also an applied i-cord to complete the design perfectly. This is the sort of detail that takes a cardigan from homemade to a work of art.
I've not worked on it too much as I'm trying to get Still Light done and dusted before I get too side-tracked by this. I'm so pleased with how it is going though. I've cast on the sleeve and and am working my way up the increases. I've chosen just one shade different from those that Kate recommends - the main teal colour that is used for the i-cord and in the stripes is just slightly brighter than the one that Kate used. It wasn't a purposeful deviation - I was madly trying to match up the shades at the Trunk Show at Jamieson & Smith and it wasn't that light in the shop. In fact, at one point all the lights went out briefly! Maybe that was when I looked at the teal! I love how these colours work together - the subtlety of the two colours in each stripe is just ace. The yarn is the ever-gorgeous-to-knit-with Jamieson & Smith 2ply Jumperweight.
I have a bit of a strategy in mind for this cardigan, as I love how finishing touches add to a project, but I don't always love doing those finishing touches. So I'm going to break them down for this cardigan. I plan on adding the i-cord at the cuff of this sleeve before I've gone too much further. I will knit the pockets into the body as soon as there is enough body to do so. I so enjoy the end of a project - casting off and then putting the garment on. I know that if I leave all of the finishing to the end, I'll be too impatient to wear the hoody and I'll risk not taking my time over the details properly. If I do them as I go along I think it will really help me. Do you do anything to help to make the finishing neater, or more enjoyable to do?
To get the stripes as neat as possible, I'm splicing the shades together each time that the colour changes. At first it was a tiny bit fiddly, but I'm totally in the zone with it now, and I love that it means I will only have 1 end to weave in when I'm finished!
I can't wait to be able to share more about this book - there are quite a few more projects that I'm planning to make from it! You can keep an eye on my progress with this lovely hoody on my project page on Ravelry: Northmavine Hoody. The book will be available to purchase from Kate's website: Kate Davies Designs. And we're expecting it to be on sale from 1st December 2012. In the meantime I had better print out some proofs to check! Happy knitting!
