Saturday, April 12, 2014

Tutti Frutti - Decisions

I've joined a knitalong on the Patricia Roberts Group on Ravelry.  As my project I chose the pullover "Tutti Frutti".  Here's a scanned picture from The Patricia Roberts Knitting Book:

Ignore the plastic headband!  This pattern and the picture are from 1981.  I won't be looking for that accessory to wear with the sweater.  I won't be adding the shoulder pads either.

I'm struggling to get started.  I'm going to use Louisa Harding Willow Tweed as I have enough in my stash.  It's a blend of alpaca (40%) and merino wool (40%) with little puffs of white silk (20%).  The yarn is now discontinued.

The original sweater is done in a yarn that knits to a worsted or aran weight.  I wanted to do a more lightweight version.  The yarn I have claims to be a DK weight but it looks thinner to me.  I did a gauge swatch on 4mm/US 6 needles but the resulting fabric was much too loose.  The same was true for the 3.75mm/US 5 needles.  Now, I'm going to do another swatch, going down another needle size.  Once I've found a gauge that I like, then I'll make adjustments to the sweater.  I'll probably end up doing more stripes at this finer gauge but that's fine with me.

My next issue is trying to decide on the placement of the stripes.  I have 6 skeins each of green, pink and aqua - as well as 4 skeins of light gray, so there's enough for almost any striping option.  In the photo to the right the sun is shining on the green making it appear a little brighter than it is, but still, it's close to the true color.

The pattern's picture, above, shows 4 colors for the major stripes and a 5th color, the black, for the minor stripes. 

Should I:
  • use all 4 of my colors for the major stripes?  If so, what color would work for the minor ones?  If I don't have it in my stash, I don't mind buying a single skein or two if necessary.  Since this yarn is discontinued and hard to find I don't mind doing the dividing stripes in another type of yarn.  Would white be too stark?
  • use 3 of my colors for the major stripes and the fourth for the minor one?  If so, which ones should I use?  I thought of using the green for a minor stripe, laid it out on the table and didn't like it at all.
  • use all of my colors or should any one or more of them be set aside for a different project?
  • what order would look good for the striping?
I haven't decided if I'll add the zipper to the front.  If I do, it should probably match the color of the minor stripes - so I'd need to be able to find a suitable zipper.  I doubt I'll make the little filler piece in the center, between the sides of the zipper.  If I don't use a zipper I'm thinking that I might make a V-neck sweater instead...but that decision is one of the last ones I'll make.  Color and needle size are my first priorities.

I'll continue to think about this...swatching and laying out the colors in different combinations.  I welcome any and all input.  Meanwhile, my other project, Mosaic, is coming along nicely, approaching the halfway mark.  The back and one sleeve is finished.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmm,
difficult one. I would use all your colours as your main stripes and perhaps use a soft navy or a soft charcoal grey for the narrow stripes.
I'm leaning towards a soft charcoaly colour as I think that it would blend well with the other colors (...and I love grey...) but a soft Navy would perhaps give it a bit more pop.
A soft, not dayglow bright, white would work too making it more summery ( like ice cream !)

I look forward to seeing what you finally decide.

Regards,

Linda (Roxyrana on Rav)

Barb B said...

I like the soft colors, but think you need a contrast for the accent stripes. What color will you use for the neckband? I don't care for the selection in the picture and think it should be the contrast color to tie it all together. Look forward to hearing your decisions.

Dayana Knits said...

Tough questions. I kind of love all of them as major, they skeins are gorgeous!