Flowers and diamonds
Those Estonian lace knitters are a clever bunch. Having invented the nupp, some canny lady (or ladies) went on to explore further sculptural possibilities arising from dramatic increases and decreases of stitch groups. To make a nupp you knit and yarnover into the same stitch several times, then purl all those new stitches together on the next row. But it turns out you can knit some pretty exciting shapes if you nuppify a big decrease, knitting and yarnovering into a k3tog or even a k5tog a bunch of times. And then you don’t even have to purl them all back together right away. At some point, some rockstar of a knitter (probably in Estonia, although Nancy Bush isn’t sure the technique wasn’t imported from elsewhere; her traditional lace knitter friends don’t use it) figured out how to make something that looks like this:
See the little three-petal flower shapes? Only the top two tiers are correct; it took me a bit of trial and error to reverse engineer this swatch from a photograph. But using what I’d learned in Nancy’s class at the Nordic Knitting Conference, I figured out how to do it, and that made me feel like the cat’s pajamas, I can tell you. Pretty, no? I think it would be overwhelmingly fussy used across a large area, but I can imagine deploying it on the cuffs of some delicate gloves, or perhaps the hem of a girl’s party dress or a dainty sweater.
Speaking of dainty sweaters, I finally fixed the sleeves of my little manlified February sweater for the new nephew, and I mailed it off to his mother during the weekend. Want to see?
Baby Sweater on Two Needles, Knitter’s Almanac: February, by Elizabeth Zimmermann
substituted garter diamonds for the gull lace
2 skeins Rowan Calmer in a nice red (which bleeds terribly in hot water, unfortunately — I’ve warned Amy about washing it separately so as not to turn all the neph’s onesies a very girly pink)
The babies are going to start arriving by the tractor-load in June, so I expect to have wee sweaters on the needles almost continuously. Thank goodness EZ bequeathed us so many appealing designs for them. And thank goodness for Spring Break and extra knitting time! Mrs. Pom is ’round the heel and almost through the gusset; I hope to finish the second Emily sleeve in the next few days (providing I can puzzle out why the sleeve-cap of the first seems to be impossibly short and solve the problem). Mum and I have just bought wool for her next sweater, which will not be a fair isle but a heavier EZ Three and One cardigan in oatmealy Eco-Wool and Cascade Rustic in brown, blue, and green. I’ve already swatched.
Posted: March 24th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Oh my goodness, that lotus motif looks incredible. Way to go, reverse-engineering that one!
I absolutely adore that little red yoked sweater, too. Lucky nephew!
Posted: March 24th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
What a beautiful stitch pattern! Great job! It would look great at the edge of a shawl, especially if you could build up the size of the flowers gradually from the center of the shawl.
Posted: March 24th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
I’m knitting the Miralda shawl right now, and it’s such a pleasure to knit. I love the gathered stitches, they are fun. Your baby sweater is adorable! What a great idea to make this for a boy. He’ll look darling in it!
Posted: March 24th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
I can’t believe that you reverse engineer that pattern. Wow! And another wow to the the baby sweater! So pretty!
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 1:17 am
I am so impressed with the reverse engineering, and love the red baby surprise jacket. When I was knitting for our oldest, (a girl) I always aimed for gender neutral cute patterns in case a later child turned out to be a boy. This really will be “handmedownable”.
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 5:51 am
That lace pattern is stunning, kudos to you for figuring it out!
Very cute sweater too.
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 6:25 am
ooh, that flower lace is gorgeous!! And that sweater for your nephew is too awesome- looks like something you’d find in a museum, it’s so classic! Great job.
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Love the flower lace! I can’t believe you reverse engineered it. I mean, I can, of course, and I’m really impressed 🙂
So, it seems like I’m ahead of the curve, baby-wise? 😉 Due a whole month before the rest of the pack!
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 9:05 am
I am happy to hear that you will be knitting the 3 and 1 sweater. I have been looking at that pattern for some time, wondering if I can figure it out. I’ll be interested in your tips on it.
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I’m in awe at all of the knitting you’ve gotten done in the last few weeks! Makes my few rows a night of the scarf of doom feel downright pedestrian!
Posted: March 25th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Are you going to give us a chart for that stitch pattern? 🙂
Posted: March 26th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Love the baby sweater! The textures are great.
Posted: March 27th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Ooh–I’ve long wanted to do a Three and One. The swatch looks great; love the colors!
Posted: March 30th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
very, very pretty — both bits. xo
Posted: March 31st, 2009 at 12:56 pm
i just LOVE what you did with the baby sweater 🙂 such a great modification! miss you!
Posted: April 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
i love that “manified” february baby sweater. it’s perfect for a little boy and it’s nice to see a color other than blue or green.
I also love that gorgeous, lacy stitch pattern! Will you be sharing it any time soon??