Showing posts with label bloc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bloc. Show all posts

19 April 2016

Pattern: Bloc Pulli


Bloc Pulli on Ravelry $8 (no account necessary)

If you have a weakness for amazing-colored sock yarn and a known aversion to knitting socks, what are you to do? Knit yourself a Bloc Pulli! Contrasting cuffs shaped with short rows and a garter stitch edging at the collar set off that sock yarn from a straightforward body with a round yoke that doesn’t distract from the gorgeous color blocking.



What you'll love about knitting Bloc Pulli:

  • Short-row shaping on the long cuffs is fun to work
  • Sometimes you want a bit of in-the-round comfort knitting - you've got it! Nary a purl in sight (just three purl half rows to raise the back of the neck)
  • Sideways-knit collar means no tight (or fiddly) bindoff plus you've mastered a wonderful and useful technique

What you'll love about wearing Bloc Pulli:
  • Color blocking!
  • Lightweight yarn makes this a great multi-season sweater you'll reach for all the time
  • Though not fitted in the body, the properly-sized yoke ensures you'll look pulled together



Size/Finished Measurements
Women’s XS, S, M, L, 1X, 2X, 3X (shown in size M with 4” ease)
Chest circumference: 32, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56 inches
Materials
  • MC: Harrisville Designs Shetland (100% Wool; 217 yards/198 Meters per 50 gram skein); color: Midnight; 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7 skeins 
  • CC: Madeline Tosh Tosh Sock (100% Superwash Merino; 395 yards/361 meters per 114 gram skein); color: Tomato; 1 skein for all sizes (50g skein of fingering-weight yarn is sufficient for XS, S, and M sizes) 
  • US3/3.25mm 29-inch circular needle 
  • US6/4.0mm 29-inch circular needle 
  • Set of US6/4.0mm DPNs 
  • Waste yarn or stitch holders 
  • Stitch markers 
  • Tapestry needle

Gauge
20 sts x 28 rows = 4 inches in MC in Stockinette stitch on larger needle
24 sts x 48 rows (24 ridges) = 4 inches in CC in Garter stitch on smaller needle
Skills Needed
  • Casting on 
  • Binding off 
  • Knitting 
  • Purling 
  • Increasing 
  • Decreasing 
  • Short rows



Thanks!
Technical Editing: Karen Clark
Test Knitting: voodikon, ryam
Photography: Nicholas Dames

Everything you need to create your own beautiful Bloc Pulli is provided in the professionally designed (by me!) pattern.

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,

15 February 2016

Color blocking with Kathleen Dames (and Victoria Beckham)

Yesterday's Victoria Beckham show for NYFW included a little something that looks awfully familiar...

Victoria Beckham: Fall 2016, Look 9

Color-blocked cuffs, matching collar, navy body, orange contrast. Does that look like anything you might already know?

Kathleen Dames: June 2013, Bloc Pulli

Oh, hello, Bloc Pulli. You're looking as sharp as when I designed and knit you during Hurricane Sandy. You've got fun-to-knit long cuffs shaped with short rows, a sideways-knit collar that's stretchy and adds a pop of color up top, and in the entire garment you only have to purl three half-rows, so you're just one big, fabulous knit-knit-knit. (Personally, I wouldn't want to knit a sweater entirely in ribbing these days, but that may just be me.)

Guess color blocking is still a fashionable thing. Do you think my Bloc Party cardigan will show up in a collection next Spring?

-----

Last summer I experienced another facet of the Intellectual Property dodecahedron when someone was selling a copy of my pattern for An Aran for Frederick on Etsy. That was a pretty clear case, and Etsy responded almost immediately by taking the pattern down.

In this instance Ms. Beckham's Look 9 would be deemed nothing more than a coincidence, since, unlike Mati Ventrillon's experience with the house of Chanel, VB's design team have not visited my atelier (i.e. my desk in the corner of the dining room/book and yarn stash storage next to the washer-dryer/filming studio in our bedroom) ... ever.

So, what should I do? Not much, actually, except enjoy the fact that a design similar to mine stomped the catwalk at NYFW yesterday. I do think my design is more fun to knit, though ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
xoxo,





P.S. Guess my next pattern in the upgrade queue should be Bloc Pulli, eh?

25 November 2013

Today's Sweater: Bloc

It's still cold here in New York, so today I chose my original Bloc pullover, which I designed and knit last year during Hurricane Sandy. There is a lot of sympathy knitted into this sweater, as I worked around and around on those stitches while watching television coverage of the hurricane and it's aftermath (and being so grateful to live on high ground). This one is in Harrisville Shetland (colorway: Midnight, which has a subtle variation of blues that you only truly appreciate close up) and Madeline Tosh tosh sock (colorway: Tomato, a vibrant maple tree orange with flickers of gold). The two yarns, both their colors and textures, play off of each other perfectly. And I had such fun figuring out the short-row garter stitch stuff for the cuffs. What I particularly love about the Shetland is that it's woolen-spun and so provides warmth without being bulky. 

I don't have a Maker Monday today because I didn't make pizza this weekend and was in too much of a hurry when making my granola to take pictures (I also had to make a cake, cupcakes, cookies, and a batch of caramels for a birthday girl who got her braces off). So, now you have homemade pizza and granola to look forward to next month. Aren't you lucky!

In addition to my usual stuff, I'm winding up yarn for two new designs. The yarn is from the wonderful Wooly Wonka, and I'm really looking forward to knitting it up. Sorry that you'll have to wait a bit for the designs, but I think they'll be worth it ;)

Thanks for stopping by, and happy knitting!
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