Mission: possible?
Wise Ones, I need your best recommendations for knitting argyle in the round. First: possible? Or possible but such a colossal headache that I’d be mad to attempt it?
My brother has finally produced the measurements of his ideal sweater. (Get this: the sleeves are 21.5″ from underarm to cuff. And 14″ maximum circumference. The body is 39″ around. My brother is 6’4″ and had to buy a mannequin-size suit for his wedding.) That means that as soon as I’m done with Mr. G’s sweater (will the blocking cure all? stay tuned! Aran-weight wool takes an age to dry!), I get to cast on for the Argyle of Insanity. (Cue dizzying footage of a knitter in black scaling a sheer drop hand over hand up a rope, knitting needles clenched in her teeth.) I may have mentioned here at some point that my brother, when offered the sweater of his dreams as a Christmas gift last year, knew exactly what he wanted: “An argyle sweater! Except I’ve never seen one that’s really what I want. I think the lines are too straight.”
Bafflement ensued, at least at my end. The lines are too straight? Argyles are built of diamond shapes, in my experience. Diamonds have, well, straight lines. So I applied my 27 years of knowledge of my brother’s mind and tastes to the interpretation. This is a kid who came home from the second grade and announced that there were too many Tylers and henceforth he’d prefer to go by his rare middle name. (We obliged. Saxton, the name of a great-great uncle notable for having pin-cushioned several continents’ worth of fearsome beasties with his homemade longbow and arrows, suits him much better.) I decided he wasn’t after beer-goggles argyle with wavy lines so much as an argyle that would break the traditional rigid grid. A sort of deconstructed argyle. Then I remembered a vest our grandmother made for our grandfather—two winters’ work from 1969 to 1971, according to the dates she embroidered on the left shoulder. It’s done in needlepoint and is one of the finest examples of her powerful and original design sense. Dad wears it for Christmas and other dressy occasions now.
Those swirls of geometric shapes (they’re tiny log cabin squares!) made me think of a sort of spiraling flock of small argyle diamonds, shifting color and flying free at the edges. Here’s a sketch of how I imagine they’ll whirl around the body:
Now, to me, this is a construction that begs to be knit in the round. I don’t want a seam up the middle of my skein of diamonds. I could knit it flat in one piece with the seam at the left side, but I’d really like to knit the plain sleeves in the round and then set them in according to Elizabeth Zimmermann’s instructions, as I did for Daisy Daisy. And if the argyle is to travel all the way up and peep over the left shoulder, I’d still have to shift into the round at the sleeve join.
So I really need to know how to work intarsia in the round. I’ve heard about people doing it. Is it feasible here, where I’ve got such small areas of colorwork? What are the best references to go to for learning the technique? I’m not opposed to knitting back backwards, a skill I think I remember being involved. I’d still need a little separate bobbin of the background color for in between the diamonds, right? Has anyone tried this, and was it worthwhile? Can I see pictures of your work on Ravelry or Flickr? And isn’t there a way to do it with short rows? Am I going to need to knit a pair of argyle socks in the round to practice? (Come on, twist my arm! I seem to remember there was a class on this at Madrona last year… anyone remember who taught it?)
Oh, and in case you’re curious, here are the colors of Berroco Ultra Alpaca DK I’ll be using:
Let the madness begin.
Posted: September 20th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
In my opinion the best reference work for this technique is Knitting In The Old Way, which includes THREE different methods for intarsia in the round. Good luck, Knitter, thou art brave.
Posted: September 20th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I am not sure how, but I do love the design of it. Good luck and I can’t wait to see it.
Posted: September 20th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
Oh. Wow. I have accidentally done intarsia in the round, but it was early in my knitting career and it was a case of poor execution and confused intent rather than a planned thing.
This is probably not a good suggestion, but could you continue carrying the colors around like stranded colorwork, just twisting the yarns together every 6 stitches or so, so that the yarn ends up on the correct side for the next round? It would make a super thick sweater, of course, and is possibly completely crazy, but it’s the first idea that struck me as I tried to reason this through.
Good luck! I love your sketch. I have a powerful love of argyle (which sits in the same corner as my love of herringbone, tweed, and houndstooth) and I can’t wait to see how you manage this! Your color choices are splendid.
Posted: September 20th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
I love the idea for this sweater! I have no idea how one would go about kitting it in the round though, I’ve got a powerful fear of intarsia. I have a friend who would die for this shirt, he loves argyle so much he has a argyle tatoo on his forearm =)
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 4:50 am
Intarsia in the round made very little sense to me, until I watched Meg Swansen do it in The Knitter’s Glossary DVD. I think that, based on that video, it would actually be perfect for your small areas of color.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 5:53 am
I have absolutely no idea how that would work. I just wanted to say that the sweater design looks AWESOME. I have a feeling my husband will beg for a similar one when you’re done.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 6:08 am
I found this:
http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2008/02/tutorial-intars.html#
and this:
http://explaiknit.typepad.com/let_me_explaiknit/2006/08/rock_around_the.html
But perhaps you found these posts as well?
Fantastic design, and I think it’s going to be fun to knit too 🙂
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 6:09 am
I ran across these in the past and bookmarked them for reference, but I haven’t had an opportunity to try it yet
http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2008/02/tutorial-intars.html
http://www.thedietdiary.com/cgi-bin/Argyle.pl
I think there are other ways that are basically ways to knit flat but join the knitting in such a way as to make it look in the round
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 6:41 am
For Eunny’s deep-argyle vest, she charted it so the floats were never more than seven stitches. It is knit in the round and steeked. It seems reasonable that you could do something similar.
http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/2006/01/deep_v_argyle_vest_pattern_for.html
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 6:56 am
Brilliant idea, and it MUST be possible–I was looking for something similar the other day, and came across this page on the Moth Heaven blog: http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2006/01/resources_for_a.html
I haven’t tried out any of the instructions yet, but they look promising!
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 8:18 am
I don’t have any advice to add about knitting intarsia in the round, but I just had to tell you that I love your idea for this sweater! Can’t wait to see how this pans out.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 8:24 am
I once did “intarsia in the round”. Didn’t know it was called intarsia at the time, but I don’t like purling colourwork, so I figured out a way to avoid it. You can se the sweater here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/torirot/51496192/ . I kept the boxes in one colour and they are worked in normal colourwork, with floats. Then I had one colour for each stripe, intarsia technique. As all the stripes was the same width (11 sts, I believe), it was easy to figure out how much yarn needed for these sts. So when the yarn end was at the left end of the stripe, a measured out what I needed, and started knitting. I don’t know if this makes sence to you, I feel I’m explaining it badly.. It is a bit time consuming.. Maybe som knitting gurus have figured out a better way than this, I wouldn’t know.
I like your design, and the colours are wonderful! Good luck! Looking forward to seeing how this works our 🙂
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 9:02 am
Hm, do these help at all?
http://scrubberbum.typepad.com/moth_heaven/2008/02/tutorial-intars.html
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall07/PATTintarsiafun.html
http://explaiknit.typepad.com/let_me_explaiknit/2006/08/rock_around_the.html
Btw, I think the “deep-v argyle” by Eunny Jang is actually stranded knitting, not intarsia.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 9:30 am
I’ve had some interesting reads on theLady’s link. It’s amazing how many different knitting techniques there are out there!
So, as far as I’ve understood, you can do intarsia in the round either by purling or by knitting back bacwards. Both methods involve a turning place with yo/wrapping or similar. My method allows you to knit all the way, but it’s not perfect, because its a bit hard to start knitting at exactly the right point of the strand (you’d probably have to unravel some sts from time to time when your strand is too long or short.) With your pattern, you would probably work stranded with the MC, and intarsia with the CC.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 10:43 am
It’s a really cool design idea, but I don’t have the foggiest idea how it would work in intarsia. My few intarsia experiences have all been worked flat.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 11:39 am
This may or may not help but is worth checking out. “argyles without Seams, is a technique to knit the garment diamond by diamond. The reference in in Threads Knitting around the World. Let me know if you want more details.
good luck
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I sadly can’t help on the intarsia in the round issue, though it looks like you’ve got many comments. I did want to let you know that I think your grandmother’s vest is absolutely amazing. Will you please show us other things she made?
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 1:33 pm
No idea how to do this, but it looks like you have a consensus in the comments. [Craziest knitting *I’ve* ever done involved knitting snakes into/onto my sweater, back in the early 90’s.] Adding my own thumbs-up to both the colors and the design.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I have done it using Meg’s method and it works. You might also want to look into Meg and Joyce’s Armenian knitting if you don’t mind a “tweedy” look.
Your designs are always lovely so I am sure you will come up with a good strategy.
Peace and Yarn,
Annie
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Wow! What a project! I really like the design you’ve come up with. It should be stunning. No idea on the intarsia in the round, but I have a possible alternative. If you knit it flat, as you were thinking with the side seam, you could pick up the sleeves ala Barbara Walker and work set-in sleeves from the top down. Just to toss that idea out there. Good luck!
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Hmm, I’m curious as to how you end up doing the colorwork in the round. The sketch you have with the argyle diamonds drifting hither and thither looks great!
You grandmother was a bitchin’ cool vest-maker.
Posted: September 21st, 2009 at 6:47 pm
I have no suggestions to offer, but it is an amazing sweater. Would you consider selling the pattern once it’s completed, since there are so many of us that would love to make one?
Posted: September 22nd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Many have commented on knitting intarsia in the round and provided good websites etc so I won’t belabour the point.
I’ve done this myself and the advantage is you can see (from the front) the pattern go up. Whereas, when purling (ie. knitting flat) every second row, I keep having to flip the work over to make sure I’m working the colour patterns correctly.
I wouldn’t suggest stranding it over the one colour area – that’s ALOT of stranding (every 7 stitches or so) and would slow your progress alot. Also, my experience has been that the longer the stranding (even when you’re weaving in every 7 stitches) the greater the likelihood it will pull, gap or be otherwise uneven.
A final comment – if you find your nerve failing and decide to knit it flat and then seam, you can always use the (nearly invisible) mattress stitch on the sides so that the seaming can’t be seen.
Posted: September 24th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Awesome idea!
If you’re able to have small argyle diamonds and use fair-isle (as in Eunny Jang’s vest) rather than intarsia, you’ll still have to deal with what to do when the diamonds don’t go all the way around the sweater.
This Ravelry user did just that, with a pretty good tutorial at the bottom of the page:
http://www.ravelry.com/projects/lisseut/neiman
It took me a couple read-throughs to figure out exactly what she did, but it seems like a really clever way of going about it.
Good luck with your sweater – I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Posted: September 26th, 2009 at 4:16 am
Wow, what an awesome sweater idea! I have not yet tried intarsia in the round, but I’m seconding the recommendation for “Knitting in the Old Way”, which describes multiple ways of doing it (and is also just a generally awesome book).
Posted: September 26th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Chiming in late here, but for the single-stitch parts, could you use Rovaniemi knitting? It’s a mitten technique that involves an unusual way of carrying a single stitch diagonally so that it doesn’t have to be stranded. There was an article in Piecework
“From the Arctic Circle: Knitted Rovaniemi Mittens.” Piecework Jan. & Feb. 2008: 12-15.