Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Part 2

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 2

As I indicated in the previous blog the pattern on the Pictorial Chart will have to be more organic. Rather than inputting the design first on the Pictorial Chart as on the back it will be constantly adjusted whilst knitted.

As I have been going along there have been minor tweaks however I have arrived at a point where there needs to be not only tweaking but I will have to go back and embroider corrections.

Fox Spindly legs 

As you can see in the photograph above the legs are disproportional to the body. This means they will have to be enlarged width ways.  Now this can be done on the Pictorial Chart but it is far more difficult on the actual work itself.

Unfortunately there is very little room in between the Fox’s legs. Therefore I will have to be extremely careful or the legs will end up merging.

Fox Spindly Legs Pictorial Chart Adjustment

This is a rough adjustment. In order to increase the width of the legs without merging I have done the following. I have increased the Fox’s far front and hind legs to the left. I have increased the Fox’s near front and hind legs to the right. This should maintain the distance between as before.

Incidentally have you spotted the mistake I have made in the adjustment?

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime Part 1

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project - Front Daytime

Part 1

Finally I am going to start on the front pieces of the Cape. I still am using the term ‘Cape’ but in truth it has evolved more into a Cardigan than actually a Cape. However I shall continue using the Cape for ease.

The Front will be divided into two parts. One side will depict a ‘Daytime scene’ and the other side will be a ‘Night time’ scene. These two pieces will overlap each other thereby giving a choice between which scenes will be on top.

Before I can start knitting I need to make a design. I have decided that the daytime scene will have a ‘Fox’ on it. Therefore I needed to draw some rough Fox designs.

Rough Fox Design 1

As with the other animals I have drawn then it needs to be inputted onto chart paper.

Rough Fox Design on Chart Paper

That was the easy part. Unfortunately it has been so long since I had to cast on working downwards that I had forgotten how to put the stitches in the right order.

After several goes I was still getting it wrong and therefore did what I really should have done in the first place – make a test piece.

Test Front Daytime Piece

Now I had worked out the correct order of stitches I thought I could get on with some knitting. Needless to say it wasn’t that easy. One of the problems was I that I had to try and match up the top of the Front piece with the bottom of the Hood.

I tried this a few times but when I came to putting the knitting against the Hood it looked unwieldly. I came to the decision that I had too many stitches on.

Too Many Stitches

I had originally cast on 130 stitches on 5mm needles. This included the Selvedge. However I decided to reduce this to 120 stitches including the edges. My theory being that if I found it to be a little shorter it was easier to add another edging than it would be trying to somehow shorten it.

Matching the Hood Daytime 

The above photograph shows the process of matching at both ends. The middle part doesn’t matter so much as it will not be attached to the Hood.

The Front Daytime scene will be attached to the Right hand side of the Cape. This is on the Left hand side of the photograph.

In addition to matching the bottom of the Hood I also need to try and match the side pieces. The simplest way of doing this was to knit a few rows then pin it at the end.

Matching at Far End

The next blog will be building up the design

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Hood Part 5

Autumn Cape 2016 A long Term Project Hood Part 5

This is a very quick Blog as it is just dealing with a few more embellishments. In addition to the leaves mentioned in the Blog Oakey Doh-key there is another leaf pattern I am using.

Autumn Cape Bracken Leaf 3.25 mm Needles

Autumn Cape Bracken Leaf 4 cm

The above photographs show a test leaf in Bracken. The idea is that I make lots of these to edge the hood. However due to shortage of certain colours I will have to wait until I have finished the front pieces before I can finish the Hood.

Acknowledgements

Pattern

Simply Knitting magazine June 2016.

Part of the green man pattern by Alan dart.