Friday, January 30, 2015

Mosaic Imps Sweater

Yoo hoo, knitters! Jeanette says: "I began this sweater in 2011, and almost frogged it, but I persevered and 4 years later it’s done.


I usually knit in the round, and this flat knitting really slowed me down! Mosaic knitting requires flat pattern pieces, done on straight needles. But I HAD to do that tessellated imp mosaic pattern!

The tessellation pattern includes both white and black imps. The imps are both right side up and upside down.
I was intrigued by Barbara Walker’s “shadow patterns” in her book “Mosaic Knitting”, and I chose to use her little black and white imps for my fabric. She was a genius.

I adapted a basic modified drop-shoulder pullover pattern, by Heather Lodinsky in Knitter’s Mag.#57, winter 1999. She named it “Woven Weekenders”, and also used a mosaic stitch pattern, but I wanted those imps. I used her pattern schematic as a base, for stitch counts and measurements.

I did corrugated ribbing (red and black) on the cuffs, bottom hem, and neckline, because the sweater needed a red color accent. The rest of the sweater is garter stitch in black and cream. The mosaic imp pattern is all slip-stitch. The sweater is heavy and warm, but not as impossibly heavy as stranded worsted-weight would have been.

Today when my husband wore it into the library, it stopped the librarian in her tracks. She was a knitter, and those imps definitely got some attention."

For more info about yarns and needles on this sweater, visit this page of Jeanette's Ravelry account

10 comments:

Unknown said...

WOW!!!

Brilliant. I would wear that with beaming pride.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Hayley Fortner said...

Wow, that's incredible! Jeanettes perseverence really paid off!!

PS... Love the knitting feature :)

hena said...

That looks really gorgeous! Great job on that sweater, it was worth the 4 years. Isn't victory sweet? I'm currently working on a large knitting project that has been going on for 2+ years and is still not done, so I know the feeling!

Janet Oliver said...

Jeanette, I almost lost my eyesight staring in awe at this sweater! I can't imagine how you kept yours when making it. It's Escher-esc in its complexity.Are the imps upside down, right-side up, or both? Just gorgeous.

James, I didn't follow any of the links he so generously provided, but the comments on this post have veered toward the, um, interesting with those of "Sumi Khomom."

James Gurney said...

Janet, James here. Yes, the imps go both right side up and upside down, both in white and in black.

I deleted all the commercial robo-spam (and in Sumi Khomom's case, porn-spam) Spam has been a continuing problem on the blog comments. I changed the comment settings to require moderation for any post older than two weeks. So this spammer put spam comments on all 14 of my last two weeks' posts.

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Anna R. said...

OH! Thanks for posting this and kudos to Jeanette. Here are two favorite loves in one post: painting and knitting.

Whatzitknitz said...

Love the sweater. I have looked at this imp pattern in b walker's book and wondered where I could use it. Now I know.
It is very easy to take a mosaic pattern and knit it in the round. I do it all the time. You just knit the same row twice.

Brad Teare said...

M C Escher would be proud! Good job, Jeanette.

Rachael Herron said...

Holy wowzer. That is stunning. From a knitter to Jeanette, KUDOS. James, that looks wonderful on you!