Showing posts with label sailor's valentine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sailor's valentine. Show all posts

13 November 2015

Pattern: Sailor's Valentine


Sailor's Valentine on Ravelry $7 (no account necessary)


Originally Sailor’s Valentines were shell-encrusted boxes brought back from Barbados for sailors’ sweethearts. Today, keep the love alive with a romantic collection of cables to make a seafaring sweater of love, perfect for any Valentine.

This Sailor's Valentine is worked flat from the bottom up in one piece to the underarms. Sleeves are also worked flat (to maintain a consistent gauge) from the cuff up, then all three pieces are joined to work a seamless hybrid-style yoke. But the fun doesn't stop there! This sweater is topped off with a turned-heel hood (worked the same way you would to create a short-row heel on a sock), which keeps the Heart Strings cable going all the way from the hem to the top of the hood.

Ribbing at the sides of the sweater gives a closer fit without working waist shaping. For a unisex sweater, simply substitute Seed Stitch for the 2x2 rib.



What you'll love about knitting Sailor's Valentine:

  • Variety of beautiful cable patterns that are not only fun to work but have special meaning
    • Reef Knot - sailors worth their salt know how to rig their ships
    • Triple Gull Stitch - gulls keep sailors company out at sea
    • Heart Strings - twisting, turning, entwined hearts
    • Twin Waves - gentle undulations on the ocean
    • Sailor's Rib - a little something special (and seaworthy) along the front edges and framing the hood
  • Once you've mastered the cables, it is so much fun to bring them all together in the hybrid yoke, which cleverly shapes the body and sleeves up and over your shoulders
  • If the yoke wasn't fun enough, the hood will blow you away by bringing the Heart Strings all the way to the top.


What you'll love about wearing Sailor's Valentine:
  • Who doesn't love a great hoodie?
  • Ribbing along the sides makes for a figure-flattering shape (substitute Seed Stitch if you're looking for a unisex fit)
  • Hybrid yoke creates a great fit in the shoulders

Size/Finished Measurements
Chest: 30 [34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 54] inches
Shown in 38-inch with 0-inch ease

Materials
  • Bartlettyarns Fisherman 2-ply [100% Wool 210 yards/192 meters per 113 gram/4 oz. skein]; color: Cranberry #378; 5 [5, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9]
  • One US6/4.0mm 29-inch circular needle (ndl)
  • Set of four (or five) US6/4.0mm double-pointed needles (dpns)
  • Cable needle (cn)
  • Stitch markers
  • Coil-less safety pins or other removable stitch markers
  • Waste yarn or stitch holders
  • Tapestry needle
  • 23-inch (or desired length) zipper in color to match yarn
  • Knit-picker tool, or desired tool(s) for zipper installation (visit Techknitter's zipper installation post for more information about the knit-picker - I found mine at Joann's in the sewing tools section)




Gauge
16 sts x 20 rows = 4 inches in Stockinette Stitch


Skills Needed
  • casting on
  • binding off
  • knitting
  • purling
  • increasing
  • decreasing
  • working stitches out of order (cabling)
  • reading charts
  • short-row shaping

Thanks!
Technical Editing: Karen Clark
Test Knitting: barleystonks, justmama, lexisknits, and puce59
Photography: Nicholas Dames



Everything you need to create your own beautiful Sailor's Valentine is provided in the professionally designed (by me!) pattern. Charts for all the cable patterns are included.

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



Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo,

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