Shrug It Off

The original vision, that is.

I finally have some photos of my latest design endeavor. Its still in progress. Here's where I started:
I'm using Plassard's Symphonie. Its a self-striping yarn and I had hoped to creating striking stripes by knitting on the bias.

In the beginning, this was to be a big rectangle and I was just going to sew seams for sleeves. Easy peasy. A nice 2 skein project for those want to branch out beyond scarves.

Of course, along the way.....

I wanted to do a little shaping and then thought about how this would sit on the body. I didn't want it to look like a scarf turned into two sleeves. And I didn't want it to float around such that the wearer would feel the constant need to rearrange the garment.

The common design response to this is to pick up stitches after the sleeves are seamed. You go from the neck all the way around the body and back to the neck. Then you knit a ribbed edge. I thought about that, but wasn't drawn to the idea. What I really wanted was to have a little bit of ribbing on the upper arms. Like an arm band of ribbing. Ok, try to figure out how to get a non-biased band of ribbing when you're knitting on the bias. I think I was getting close when I abandoned that idea and thought about knitting the body and creating ribbed sleeve caps. You know, a top down body where the sleeeve caps are created before you put them on holders and finish the bottom.

Well, one thought led to another and now I'm knitting this:

Very different from the original vision. This shrug now has bias ribs throughout. Its very stretchy and gives me the cling I was looking for. Don't know it it will go with the sleeve, though. I might have to try the bias stockinette approach again for another project.

Tune in to see how it goes...