Copycat Designing

Such a good sport!

A couple weeks ago, mom sent me photos of a coworker in a long, swingy, open-front cardigan and hinted rather strongly that she'd love for me to knit her one just like it. The sweater in question was store-bought, and an exhaustive search of the Ravelry pattern database turned up nothing even remotely similar. This by itself was actually pretty surprising, since the Ravelry collection is massive, comprehensive, and very well indexed, and I've seen similar flowy cardigans all over the place for the last few years. I even own a couple. It seemed inevitable that someone, somewhere, had written a pattern for something that was close enough to be modded with little difficulty. But I found nothing.

It was hard to be disappointed, though, because that meant I got to design it myself! Woo!

One of the super helpful structural photos mom took.

Copycat designing has its obvious advantages.  Since it's not my own original brainchild, much of the designing work is already done for me. There's an existing, wearable example for me to work from. Ideally, I'd be able to get my hands on it, measure it, possibly even deconstruct it, but alas, this particular sweater lives on the far side of the continent. The hardest part then, as far as getting a good replica, will be studying the photos as closely as possible and using everything I know about knitting to figure out, just by looking, what the stitch pattern is and how and where all the shaping was applied. I'll also have to adjust the proportions slightly for a petite stature.

The biggest downside is that this will be almost entirely a labor of love as far as pattern writing goes. Although I'm not exactly stealing a pattern, I am doing my best to reconstruct one from a finished object designed and sold by someone else, and so I think any attempt on my part to sell my copycat pattern would probably amount to plagiarism. Even if it's not exactly illegal, it would be artistically dishonest. But, if I take clear notes, I can at least reproduce the sweater more than once should anyone else want one, which is a much more acceptable route, legally and morally.

Close study of the photos revealed that the texture of the entire sweater, excepting the sleeves, was a 1x2 ribbing made of slip stitch columns and garter stitch. Easy peasy. The sleeves themselves are just stockinette, even easier. The front trim and gore panel in the back are actually fabric sewn onto the knitting. I will have to take a sweater piece with me to the craft store and hunt down the perfect coordinating lace.

Yarn!!!

For yarn, I went with KnitPicks Comfy Worsted in Flamingo. Comfy, as I mentioned in my last post, is one of my favorite non-wool yarns for mom projects. The color, a lovely pale neutral pink, is one that I suggested but never thought she would actually choose. But she did! I ordered 10 balls, thinking that just over 1000 yds would be plenty for this project. But now I'm not so sure I won't need more, which is always a pain in the butt because of the difficulty of obtaining skeins from the same dye lot. I will have to make my decision as soon as possible so that I can contact Knit Picks and see if it's possible to get more from that lot. It took most of one skein to do just the back panel, which is the smallest piece. I expect to use nearly four skeins doing the shawl collar, and the "wings" and sleeves are even bigger. Yipes.

Well, first things first. I figured out my gauge and completed the back panel, which has really cool symmetrical shaping that was fun to figure out with lots of staring and experimental charting.

The back panel. Note the super clever shaping. 

Next, I cast on for the shawl collar. This is going to take a while since it's essentially a short scarf. The weather was absolutely gorgeous today, so I made sure to get cozy outside for a while so my complexion and my stitches could soak up some sun.  More pics soon!

The sun does shine in Oregon.

The Cardigan Challenge

This week, my mom asked me to make her a cardigan for the workplace, something to ward off the chill when the heater isn't working properly, or the AC is working a little too well.  Now, I absolutely love requests.  Especially with an accompanying offer of pay!  But to knit something for mom presents a few unique challenges, first and most important of which is:

1. I can't use wool.  From any kind of animal.  This means not just regular sheep's wool, which comprises a huge chunk of the yarn market, but also alpaca, merino, cashmere, bison, vicuna, etc.  Therefore, I'll have to use plant fibers, silk, synthetics, or some combination thereof.  Synthetic fibers don't block AT ALL, and the majority of them feel like cheap crap against the skin.  Plant fibers are generally stiff and heavy.  Silk is prohibitively pricey, and not particularly warm.  So the first mission is to find a vegan yarn (silk excepted) that is lightweight, springy, soft, and affordable.

Then there are the less difficult challenges:

2. Sizing.  Even if she takes the time to send me all her measurements, I can't try it on her as I go, and she's a couple sizes smaller than me.  I'll have to be very, very careful.

3. Color.  This cardigan has to go with everything, almost literally.  It will live at the office and must coordinate with anything she might choose to wear in a professional environment.  This may not be a real challenge at all, actually, if she picks the color herself.

So here's what I've chosen so far:

The Brompton Cardigan: It's lovely, simple, and the waffle stitch borders will help prevent curling.

Berroco Comfort Yarn: I have one or two other yarns in mind as well, but according to Berocco, this yarn is one of their most popular, and is soft, springy, and warm.  Of course, being a nylon/acrylic blend, it won't block, but hopefully those waffle stitch borders will eliminate or at least greatly reduce the need.

As soon as we figure out a color, I'll order the yarn and cast on.  So excited!