Indecision

Lately, I can’t seem to make up my mind about anything.

For months now, I’ve been itching (no pun intended!) to design and knit a lightweight sweater. Possibly a cardigan, probably short- or 3/4-length sleeves. But other than that? I can’t decide on the yarn, despite several on hand that I really like. I can’t decide on the overall design, despite at least four ideas swirling around in my head. I can’t even figure out which stitch pattern I’d like to swatch next.

But I’m pretty sure I like this:

The yarn is Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Silk. A full bag came home from Stitches Midwest with me. Isn’t it an awesome color? I can so wear that color.

The stitch pattern is a modification of something I found in my favorite Japanese stitch dictionary, Knitting Patterns Book 250. I can see it paired with twisted-stitch ribs, or maybe with a simpler lattice pattern.

Before I decide to move forward with a design, I like to be able to visualize it in its entirety. No designing-on-the-needles for me, not for sweaters anyway: I like to see where I’m headed. And for this design, I can’t quite see where I’d put that stitch pattern; how it would blend into the waist, armhole, neck, and shoulder shaping; or what the bottom edge treatment would be. Not yet, anyway.

So, what’s an indecisive designer to do?

More swatching, I guess. And some sketching. Or... hmm. A trick that’s worked well for me in the past has been to photograph a bunch of swatches, then create a digital montage of the stitch patterns. You can get a pretty good feel for how multiple repeats of the stitch patterns would work together, even though you only have to knit one swatch of each stitch pattern. Yes, that may be the way to go here.

Tagged: swatching.