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:

  1. WOW!!!

    Brilliant. I would wear that with beaming pride.

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

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

    PS... Love the knitting feature :)

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  3. 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!

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  4. 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."

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

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  8. 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.

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

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

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