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Swatching: Front

Front left swatch, center button band at left. Working from the center left, the front features a reversible broken garter rib pattern framed by a 12 stitch by 24 row twist-stitch double zig-zag cable, then a slip stitch cable, and knit purl flag pattern. This pattern will fit between the sleeve cap seams, contrasting with the rest of the body and most of the sleeves in plain stockinette. The broken garter rib pattern will be carried through the whole collar.

Button band at left is a double-needle pickup in 1×1 rib, picked up at a rate of 3 stitches per four rows. Three-stitch buttonholes will be centered at the midpoint of the zig-zag as shown here. The button band is bound off with a three-stitch i-cord. I’m thinking of using very simple one inch diameter two-hole buttons in natural shell.

Equipment note: Ribbing and i-cord on size 6 needles, the main body on size 7. I’ll be using wood laminate needles for their sharp points and good blend of glide vs. stickiness for the cable and slip stitches — my usual metal tips were too slippery, and bamboo were not sharp enough and a bit too sticky.

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Swatching: Back

Final swatch, center back at left. Each zig-zag repeat is 12 stitches wide by 24 rows.  The cable and V patterns repeat every four rows and the flag pattern every six, so they are easy to keep in sync. Zig-zags will be mirrored to form a column of  diamonds down the back, filled with a broken garter rib pattern at eight by eight – this will be repeated for the sweater collar and center front to lapels. I started the knit/purl V pattern with one purl row to two knit rows, but it didn’t read well enough, so I switched to two purl rows and two knit after the first few rows, and the Vs are much more coherent.

The swatch above improves on my original back swatch (below) — the original 12-row zig-zag was too small to stand out, and the broken rib fill didn’t read at that size. The eight-stitch band of broken rib din’t work either, the pattern just gets lost.  and as much as I love the braid cable, it’s too heavy to balance the zig-zag, the whole doesn’t quite hold together.

Tubular cast-on started on size 8 needles, switching to 6 for the tubular rows and 1×1 ribbing. patterned sections will have tubular cast-on without the ribbing.

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Swatching: Reversible Patterns

Long story short: a lot of patterns I loved in my knitting stitch books just didn’t “read” in this yarn at this gauge. This includes the fishtrap cable from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s January Sweater that I was sure was going to be just perfect, but in practice was hardly distinguishable from stockinette, and some of Gladys Thompson’s simple but very effective knit/purl Gansey patterns that wound up looking like garter stitch fails.

What worked best: the broken garter rib pattern (bottom, second from left), and the simple Scottish Fleet XIII flag pattern (top edge of this swatch).

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Initial Swatch

The ball-band gauge on Dovestone Aran Naturals is 4.5 stitches per inch, so my first thought was that I could push the gauge to worsted or closer to DK range. I started with size 6 wood needles knitting at 5 stitches per inch (top of the swatch in the photo above) but the stitches skew to the left, the right half pinched, and that the fabric looks rough and uneven. While this is not unexpected for a 2-ply yarn, the effect is much less noticeable at 4 stitches per inch, and the fabric looks smoother and more regular.

I experimented with applying a button band using a double-needle pick up in rib pattern, in order to avoid the usual row of purl stitches on the back of a double needle pickup. I’m really happy with the result – it will make for a completely reversible button band (back side below).

I also started the ribbed reversible cables I had intended to feature alongside the button bands, but it soon became clear they they weren’t going to stand to from a background pattern without a lot of bulk, something I want to avoid. I’m going to have to rethink that front motif.

Double-needle pickup in ribbed pattern, back of swatch
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Yarn Choices

When thinking about yarn for my WEKP project, these were my top considerations:

Durability: it is so disappointing to put months into knitting something that devolves into a mess of pills after a season’s wear.  I had heard good things about longwools and thought that might be a good place to start –Wensleydale or Blue-Faced Leicester — the right Jacob or Romney might do as well.

Versatility:  I love a rustic woolen spun, but for this project, I wanted something that could mix well with workday clothes as well as jeans, something that would have structure and a bit of drape without looking bulky.

Neutral Color:  can’t resist a tweedy undyed sheep’s grey, my favorite neutral, or maybe dark blue. I am very picky about color — I want tweediness and depth and a richness of tone that so many yarns miss.

Weight:  I’ve been leaning toward the kinds of traditional aran/guernsey stitch patterns that work best in a light sport weight at tight gauge, but need to be sure I keep to schedule, so DK weight seems like a good starting point.

Yarn Candidates

Wensleydale Fleece Gems  – West Yorkshire Spinners

This longwool is billed as a DK, but knits up more like a light sport with a lot of haze. I see this as something light and lacy, a bit too delicate for what I had in mind, and the grey color was very flat. 

Fleece Jacob – West Yorkshire Spinners

There was a lot to like about this Jacob — softer than I expected, in a tweedy sheeps grey — but like the other WYS yarn, knit up at a lighter gauge than I had hoped, and the next gauge up is aran.

Lore – The Fibre Company

This woolen spun Romney is a nice inky navy with a lot of body, a little more rustic than I’d like, but still a gorgeous yarn. Probably too dark for cables to really pop, plus I’d go blind trying see my stitches.

Dovestone DK – Baa Ram Ewe

This was my first choice –I made a cowl from this lovely, heathered blend of BFL, Wensleydale and Masham, but it has been discontinued, and remaindered colors at Webs weren’t right for my cardigan plan (I bought it in Rhubarb for a pullover).

Dovestone Naturals Aran – Baa Ram Ewe

The winner — a gorgeously soft, heathery sheeps grey in that perfectly neutral shade, warm but not too brown, with bit of a halo, and the durability of a BFL / Wensleydale longwool.

Once I had to face that Dovestone DK was off the table, I kept coming back to this one. Sure, I had planned for DK weight, and the two-ply construction may not be ideal for cabling, and its pricey for a whole cardigan, but these are not entirely rational decisions — this yarn kept whispering “knit me” and I couldn’t say no.