Showing posts with label An Aran for Frederick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label An Aran for Frederick. Show all posts

24 June 2015

Pattern: An Aran for Frederick

Next up in the pattern parade: An Aran for Frederick

My first pattern published in a print magazine (Turn of the Glass had been published in Knitty in January 2011) and a perennial favorite, An Aran for Frederick was my first opportunity to explore the way cable patterns and the hybrid yoke construction of Elizabeth Zimmermann could come together to embody a character.

An Aran for Frederick $7 on Ravelry (no account necessary)

“A well-looking man,” said Sir Walter, “a very well-looking man.”
“A very fine young man indeed!” said Lady Dalrymple. “More air than one often sees in Bath. Irish, I dare say.”
“No. I just know his name. A bowing acquaintance. Wentworth—Captain Wentworth of the navy.” 
—Jane Austen, Persuasion
Though Captain Frederick Wentworth may not be Irish, this handsome captain, who stole Anne Elliot’s heart before the beginning of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, is certainly worthy of his own Aran sweater. This cabled pullover is worked in the round, with a “hybrid” yoke to highlight the Celtic Flourish cable running up the center back and front, flanked by OXO and Superimposed Double Wave cables, and Ensign’s Braids (Ensigns were junior officers in the infantry and navy at the time, which Frederick would have been when he first met Anne) running up the sleeves and along the shoulder saddles. This yoke style makes a flattering pullover for any man (or woman). To modernize, body and sleeves begin the cable patterns immediately, and it is finished with a simple rolled neck so as not to distract from this cable tour de force.



What you'll love about knitting An Aran for Frederick
  • Gorgeous cable patterns keep your attention
  • Worked in the round from the bottom up means you can always see where you are in your cable patterns
  • Exciting-to-knit hybrid yoke: all those beautiful cable patterns + clever decreases that shape the sweater to the wearer's shoulders = super-fun knitting


What you'll love about wearing An Aran for Frederick
  • Cables that tell Captain Wentworth's story
  • Modern styling that dives right into the cables and finishes with a simple rollneck
  • Hybrid yoke that gives the wearer strong shoulders


Size/Finished Measurements
Unisex XS (S, M, L, XL) (shown in size S with 5½" ease)
Chest circumference: 37¼ (43½, 49, 53¼, 59½)"




Materials
  • Brooklyn Tweed Shelter (100% wool; 140 yd (128 m)/50 g): #16 nest, 8 (10, 12, 14, 15) skeins.
  • Size 6 (4 mm): 16" and 29" circular (cir) and set of doublepointed (dpn). 
  • Markers (m)
  • Cable needle (cn) (optional—try cabling without a cable needle; it's brilliant!)
  • Removable markers
  • Stitch holders or waste yarn
  • Tapestry needle

Gauge
15 stitches x 27 rows = 4" in Seed Stitch

Skills needed
  • Casting on
  • Binding off
  • Knitting
  • Purling
  • Increasing
  • Decreasing
  • Working in the round
  • Working stitches out of order (cabling)
  • Working from charted instructions

Thanks!
Originally published in Jane Austen Knits, 2011.
Photography: Nicholas Dames



Everything you need to create your very own An Aran for Frederick has its place in this professionally formatted (by me!) pattern. Cables are provided in chart form only.

Lovely knitters who purchased this pattern when it was originally released should have received a message from Ravelry that the updated version is now in their libraries. Don't miss the special customer coupon code!

And don't forget that An Aran for Frederick is part of my Jane Austen Knits bundle. Use code jakbundle to purchase An Aran for Anne, An Aran for Frederick, and Sotherton for $15 ($21 value). Previous purchases from my Ravelry store will be credited towards the bundle price at checkout.



Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo,

23 March 2015

FO-tastic: An Aran for Frederick

Have you ever or are you planning to knit An Aran for Frederick? How about a few lovely FOs for inspiration?

Malika added some flattering waist shaping to hers (a la An Aran for Anne) but with Frederick's cables. I love it when you knitters really make a design your own. After all, we are the bosses of our own knitting :)



I love James's manly version in Beaverslide Dry Goods Merino/Mohair.



Tahirih went all curvy and dropped the neckline on her version. Did anyone see her at Rhinebeck 2014?

How handsome is Adrianne's son in this version? And the Wensleydale Longwool Aran looks amazing.
All images from the projects' Ravelry pages. No copyright infringement intended - just want to share the love and appreciation!

Have you knit up one of my designs? I'd love to share it with all of my readers. Let me know when you've posted an FO photo on Ravelry, and I'll feature it in an upcoming blog post so other readers can be inspired.

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

19 March 2014

Interweave Sale

30% off patterns at the Interweave site! This means you can purchase downloads of the original patterns for $4.20 (regular price $6):

An Aran for Anne
An Aran for Frederick
Bixby
Sotherton

A Vest for Charles and Benwick are not yet available, but I'll let you know when they are.

The kids are off school for two (2!) weeks of Spring Break. Sadly, the weather is decidedly wintry. Work is slower than usual due to wrangling said children, but I keep plugging away :)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

24 November 2013

Today's Sweater: An Aran for Frederick

Is there anything better on a cold November day than wrapping up in a cozy Aran sweater? XOXO, twin waves, and a Celtic flourish tell the story of love on the Cobb in Lyme. 
And Brooklyn Tweed Shelter is surprisingly soft next to the skin (short sleeve t underneath, since I do live in an overheated NYC apartment). 

What are you wearing this Sunday?

(I plan to post more of these, since I really do live in my handknits.)

Happy knitting, and thanks for stopping by!
xoxo, Kathleen 

16 October 2013

Countdown to Rhinebeck 2013: What to Wear?

Just three days left until the New York Sheep and Wool Festival! Lots of knitters work up a new sweater to premiere at Rhinebeck; however, since all my new sweaters are new designs still under wraps, I have to decide which of my published patterns to wear Saturday. It looks like the weather will cooperate, though it may get a little balmy (high of 68F). Hopefully it will be a little cloudy. As lovely as the sunshine is on all those colorful leaves, it starts steaming everyone in their handknits :)

So, having worn Sotherton last year (see below :), my choices seem to be Wavelette, Mermaid's Cardigan, or Bloc (the navy/tomato one) - lace for ventilation and/or knit at a looser gauge. If it ends up being quite cloudy, I would consider one of the Arans (Anne or Frederick) or Sailor's Valentine, but those are pretty substantial sweaters.
Sothertons
Annie and me in a pair of Sothertons at Rhinebeck 2012 (photo courtesy of Bananarota)
So, I put together a little collage to help me decide. What do you guys think?
rhinebeck2013decisioncollage
What sweater to wear to Rhinebeck 2013?
Top: Wavelette, Mermaid's Cardigan, Bloc
Bottom: An Aran for Anne, An Aran for Frederick, Sailor's Valentine
In the end, I'll probably bring a few to choose from, so I have options :) 

Yikes! I haven't even thought about shawls. I guess it will depend a little on which sweater...

And I'll be working on some more ideas for the potential Unicorn project (what do you think of codename: PUP?) - thinking about yarn choices and such (I love finding local-ish yarns and indie dyers, so NYS&W is the place to be), as well as refining some ideas for magazine submissions. There's always more to do, isn't there?

Life has been a little stressful on the home front (problems with my ex), but I'm focusing on the good stuff, like Rhinebeck this weekend with my dear friend Annie; Nick and I going to LA next week (squeezing a five-year anniversary celebration into a work trip - can you believe we've never been on vacation alone together?), and "creating" a new knitter (private lesson for a great left-handed 3rd grader yesterday - saw her mom at school this morning who told me that she was still knitting at 9:15 last night, just as I'd warned them :)

Alright, I'm off to work on some pattern editing so that we can get some more test knits going. It's always more fun when I can share my stuff with you guys, rather than just the cats on the couch. Which should I get out of the way first: pattern grading a cardigan or translating a large lace chart to written instructions? Oh, and then there is the Pi shawl design that I knit up this summer and have to get down on pixels.

Hope to see some of you up in Duchess County this weekend. What are you going to wear?

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo, Kathleen

23 September 2013

Jane Austen Knits patterns now on Ravelry!

I've been a busy bee since the kids went back to school, and now all three of my Jane Austen Knits patterns are available as individual downloads from Ravelry*, Etsy**, and Craftsy!

An Aran for Anne by Kathleen Dames

An Aran for Frederick by Kathleen Dames

Sotherton by Kathleen Dames
*20% off birthday sale on all patterns is still going on until the end of September 2013. Discount automatically applied on Ravelry.
**Use the code BIRTHDAY2013 to get 20% off on Etsy.

17 March 2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day

With a name like "Kathleen", I must be Irish, right? Well, only a little, but enough to count (1/8). And what better way to celebrate being Irish than designing Aran sweaters? Better than drinking green beer in my book.

An Aran for Frederick
An Aran for Frederick by Kathleen Dames

An Aran for Frederick was my first design in a print publication, the inaugural Jane Austen Knits. I still love it and am so happy that it's been cold enough in New York City this winter to wear it (last winter did not count as winter for sweater makers IMO).

An Aran for Frederick
An Aran for Frederick by Kathleen Dames

Recognize the skirt? When we were doing the photo shoot for Mermaid's Cardigan, I asked Nick to snap a few of An Aran for Frederick styled in a feminine, romantic way. I feel sort of "Rowan" in these.

An Aran for Frederick
An Aran for Frederick by Kathleen Dames

Want to knit your own or one for your very own Frederick? Individual downloads are available from Interweave here. [I am considering releasing the pattern in my own line, which would be available on Ravelry. What do you think? It would mean more work for me in producing the pattern and a change in the contract for this pattern, but you would be able to have it in your Ravelry library. Things to think about...]

10 May 2012

An Aran for Anne--Jane Austen Knits, Summer 2012

Not one, but two of my sweater designs are in the new Jane Austen Knits! Today's "share" is An Aran for Anne, my companion to An Aran for Frederick, which you may recall from last years issue of JAK (and may see below in the pictures from the magazine).

After I submitted Frederick last Spring, a bag of Louet Gems Worsted, procured from the lovely Loopy Yarns in Chicago, started pestering me. It was the perfect foil to the Brooklyn Tweed Shelter of Frederick: smooth and sleek in contrast to Shelter's airy, worsted-spun yarn. And by late summer it was a pretty sweater with empire-style waist shaping and Elegant Ribbing to enhance the shapeliness. Like Frederick, Anne is worked in the round from the bottom up and has a saddle-shoulder style hybrid yoke, which allows the cables and twisted stitches to keep going all the way up the back. The neckline is wider, almost a boat-neck, and, thus, flattering to the delicate collar bones of elegant ladies.

As you can see, I knit this sweater for me with 0-1" of negative ease. Not all models are as voluptuous as I am :) , yet it still looks very pretty on the lovely model from JAK (I need that skirt!).

Originally, I planned to release the pattern myself last Fall. I dropped Amy, JAK's editor, a note about it, and she asked about the possibility of including it in the Summer 2012 issue. For various and sundry reasons I kept putting off releasing it myself (I'm not even sure why now), and so it is now a part of this lovely collection. Yay!
© Kathleen & Nicholas Dames

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits

© Christa Tippmann, Jane Austen Knits
You can check out An Aran for Anne on Ravelry. Print copies of Jane Austen Knits, Summer 2012 may be pre-ordered here. And if you can't wait, you can purchase the digital edition here.

20 February 2012

Pattern: An Aran for Frederick (download)

An Aran for Frederick is now available for download from Interweave for $6. [link] For those of you not interested in purchasing Jane Austen Knits in its entirety, now you have the option to download individual patterns.

14 February 2012

Errata: An Aran for Frederick

So, there is a minor glitch in the Double Wave chart. You could knit it in the round and not *really* notice, but a couple of savvy knitters have noticed, when swatching flat, that the cable crossings switch from even to odd in the second half of the chart. You can find a link to the revised chart here.

14 October 2011

An Aran for Frederick

Designers have started uploading photos to Ravelry for Jane Austen Knits 2011 [link], so I realized it was time to add mine. If you can't wait for the print versions to show up at your LYS next month, you can purchase the digital edition from Interweave's site [link]. My contribution is called An Aran for Frederick [link] - a men's cabled pullover knit in the round with an EZ-style hybrid yoke to show off all those amazing cables.

© Christa Tippmann
© Christa Tippmann
© Christa Tippmann
You can also see a little of the sweater in Catherine Shields's Fitz fingerless mitts [link].

This bundle of cable-y goodness was knit up in Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter, which I really enjoyed working with. Most of the time I work with Worsted-spun yarn, like tosh dk, so working with a Woolen-spun yarn was interesting. There is a fluffiness to it, and yet the cables really pop. Plus, it spit-splices like a dream, which is perfect for a sweater knit in the round. I only had to weave in the cast-on and bind-off ends, as well as the underarm Kitchener-ed ends.

Ever since I read Elizabeth Zimmermann's description of the hybrid yoke, I've wanted to see what would happen if you tossed cables in there, winding up the arms and shoulders, climbing up the back. So, when submissions for Jane Austen Knits were called, it seemed like the right time to explore this idea.

Persuasion is my favorite of Austen's novels, closest to my own story, and I thought a sweater inspired by Captain Wentworth was a great idea. Happily, clever editor Amy Clarke Moore agreed, and I was able to work some Frederick-themed cables into a handsome, strong-shouldered sweater.

I hope you like it! And the best news is that Interweave is already planning another edition for 2012 - call for submissions may be found here.