Yes, I named a sweater after a plate
When our family divided Grandma Clark’s belongings after her memorial service, both Aunt Susan and I wanted the Jerusalem Pottery plate to hang in our kitchens. Aunt Susan broke the tie with a joke, “You keep the plate, and make me a sweater based on it.”
For twenty years I wondered how to do it. She has a wool allergy, and lots of color work can make me, um, overly anticipate weaving in ends.
This Christmas, I hung the plate on the wall and felt like it belonged there, because I finally made Susan a sweater.
It Started with a Yard Sale, Such a Yard Sale!
Backing up to fall; Fred from church told me he was holding a yard sale with some friends who were trying to clean out the attic of their late mother who had been a fiber enthusiast. There were so many bargains, I had to think carefully about shelf space, stash space, true needs, our budget, and not giving Dan a heart attack.
I asked if they wanted more than the $10 they were asking for all the colors of thread cotton, they said they wanted an attic back, did I want the embroidery floss too? Great, due diligence and no guilt!
What to do with all the loot?
What was I going to do with all of that beautiful thread cotton? Make Temari balls? Their late mother must have been thinking of that because 2 of the books I’d bought with the yarns were about Temari. Maybe I’d make one for Aunt Susan, she loves the purples and blues. Wait, cotton, Susan…!
The Timeline
Susan was going to spend Christmas at my Mom’s house. I needed a plan. She loves her clothes to fit well, but if I was going to surprise her with a gift, how was I going to do that?
I decided to use the basis of the Attleboro Sweater for the body and sleeves, but make it a cardigan, and used linked stitches like in Newport. For the yoke, I wanted some beautiful floral, Arabian lines, like the plate. But the clock was ticking for me to develop it myself.
So I didn’t develop it myself! I bought a copy of the Green Tea Block by the Floral Hook because a yoke is pretty much a circle with a neck hole in it with either a raised back of the neck inside the circle, or outside on the back shoulder sides. Wow! What a fun pattern! It’s one of those new format ones where the tricky parts are illustrated on U-tube on a hidden video but you get the links in the pattern. This was my first overlay crochet pattern, the videos made everything really clear – clear enough to hack the original intent at the same time, because I was working it flat, not in the round.
As Dan says when he takes store bought treats to work, “This is how I bake.”
DON’T do it all yourself when you have a time crunch!
Adapting the patterns
I chain ply-ed the thread to get it to a dk-ish size, and made the yoke. Then I used Knit Picks simply organic sport cotton for the body and sleeves.
On Christmas morning, Susan got the pieces in a box (and also a painting of her new puppy by Kari). We fit the sweater to her, and took notes about alterations. It needed a much higher back than I had planned, and the neck was a bit loose. I took the pieces home to work on between visits.
Collaborating with Susan
I raised the back, fitted the yoke over it again, then sewed it on. I added some more of the Green Tea popcorns to tie the colors in from the yoke to the sleeve cuffs. Susan wanted more colors in the sleeve cuffs (so she could see them herself when she wore the sweater). Since I’d made the sleeves a little to short anyhow, it needed longer cuffs.
I worried that the plain sweater didn’t meld with the colorful collar and cuff until I remembered that I had some antique buttons from my friend Betsy, they brought some ivory into the colorful part.
One colorwork trick is repeat like crazy to get harmony.
Susan suggested that I add more and more colors to the button band and then a thin line around the body. I was encircling the body and neck edges, so I also edged the cuffs. Sure enough that color repetition tied the yoke, cuffs and button band together. When I was short of a color, I’d use only a single crochet, sometimes only a slipped stitch. When I had a space that needed to be filled in, like the back of the neck, I’d use a taller stitch.
Did I run out of thread?
I so ran out of thread. The color choices in the last parts were TOTALLY dependent on that colors I had left. What happened to the left overs? The baby books.
So, this pattern will never be released
It’s based on someone else’s work and the colors and threads that I used are probably not available anymore. But go ahead and use the idea, there are so many beautiful round crocheted mandalas and blocks that could be adapted into yokes and used with Attleboro.
Announcing a Half Birthday Half off Sale!
I had been jealous of other designers holding sales on their birthday, and seriously, I don’t want to administer a sale on Christmas day – when I heard my Grandmothers’ voices in my head, why have a pity party when you could have a PARTY? Half birthdays count!
So, I plan to hold a one day, half off sale on ALL of my patterns on my half birthday, June 25, ONLY for my newsletter subscribers.
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