On the Subject of Unicorns
It started as a whim - I’d never knit with linen before (wool is, and will always be, my first love) but once the idea was in my head I couldn’t let it go. The weight and the drape are so incredibly gorgeous and I spent weeks just drooling over endless pictures of others’ knit linen creations.
The problem was, though, that I’m also obsessed with stranded knitting - aka, knitting designs with multiple colors. From everything I read, linen just isn’t a fiber that’s conducive to these patterns. Unlike wool, linen has absolutely no stretch which means that you’ve got to get the tension perfect with every stitch to have the pattern come out clearly in the finished piece. Which just makes the whole process exponentially more tedious.
Well fine, ok. I was up for the challenge. And you KNOW I’m a fan of all things slow and precise. Worst case scenario was just to rip it all out and start again, right?
So I picked myself a fairly simple pattern by a favorite knit-wear designer. Bought my yarn. Cast on the stitches (two needle sizes down, two pattern sizes up, holding my yarn double to get my gauge). I added extra length in the back of the pattern to lower the neckline in front. Added some taper to the body for a sweatshirt-like fit. Played with color and gradient. And voila!
The backstory is that, for a long while, I’ve wanted to have a summer-weight linen sweater.
And a sunset ombre sweater.
And a round-yoke stranded sweater that wouldn’t ride up in the front, with long enough sleeves and a body that falls lower than a crop but higher than my hip.
And finding all of those things together? Practically impossible. One in a million. I could search my whole life and never find one that measured up to what I’d created in my imagination. Around here, we refer to wonderful, magical, dream objects such as this as unicorns.
Thankfully, though, one of the most wonderful things about being human is the ability to create at will. To make unicorns possible. And this sweater - fresh off the needles and destined to become a staple in my wardrobe - most DEFINITELY falls into that category.
It’s the sweater I’ll wear under my favorite fleece vest while sitting fireside in the mountains. The sweater I’ll reach for after a summer thunderstorm rolls through and sets me shivering with delight in the cooled air. A companion for early mornings and chasing the last light.
Summer is on the way and now I’m dressed and ready to celebrate her arrival.