Blog Archives

Le Scarabée bleu

25/2/2016

There is a new bug in town and it's a fun little cardigan with lots of special details!

Le Scarabée Bleu Cardigan by La Maison Rililie Designs

I have been working on this design since last fall and I am so happy that finally I can share it here with you. There was a lot of thought put into the whole coordination of all the different aspects, and if you like I can tell you some things about them:
We have a prominent textured bottom half that features a fairly easy stitch pattern to give an effect that is reminiscent of old brocade, which I absolutely love.
Then there are the folds of course - two smaller ones at the front and one that draws all the attention at the back side. These are held in place without distortion by a contrast coloured slip-stitch band right above them and they are responsible for the quirky shape, since they drape at all the right places and counterbalance the fitted top section with instant ample volume.

The yoke is shaped to follow the natural slope of the shoulders, that is different at the front and back side, for a better fit. It is also worked with short-rows to lower both fronts and to construct a diagonal empire waist line. The hemline follows the continuation of the folds and hangs lower at the sides than at the centre back, while at the same time it pulls the shape together for a more elegant look, so as to avoid it flaring out too much in an unflattering way. Last but not least there are some fun stripes thrown in at the lower sleeves in a playful sequence - just to bring all the colour-blocking of the body together in an accelerated fashion.

It was the shape of the lower part of the body that made me think of colourful scaraboid wings and surprisingly I found that they looked good on human bodies, too!
Of course there were some knitters that were a little afraid that it might not look as good on their larger sized projects, but since I like to take these differences in body shapes in account for the larger sizes (as far as this is possible in standard sizing and pattern writing), I was able to reassure most of them. We discussed that a darker colour at the bottom part (or a single colour at both top and bottom sections) can result in a slimmer looking version. Further the length of the cardigan would be crucial to achieve a different style, as also the choice of the yarn quality of course, since a drapier yarn falls differently than a stiffer one.

All those factors are actually the easiest to alter in hand-knits and of course of a really crucial importance, since they have the power to change the look of a design completely.
If you like, you can see the results on different body types in the gorgeous projects of the test-knitters and others, on ravelry. 

Shetland Wool by L'échappée Laine, France (on the knittingtherapy blog)

The yarn used in this cardigan is called Shetland from L'échappée Laine - and it was the perfect choice for this project.

Spun in France, the Shetland is made from 100% wool of French origin. The carded yarn helps in keeping warm and the smooth twist of four strands together can give you the most beautiful stitch definition. A quality that is very appreciated in textured fabrics like the one of the Le Scarabée Bleu Cardigan!

Shetland is a rustic and matt yarn, that will soften after washing and bloom nicely to fill any possible gaps in your knitting. This makes it quite suitable for stranded knitting, fair isle or other colour-work.
It is available in 22 beautiful colours. Most of them do have a subtle heathered quality that looks great in simple stocking stitch, too.

If you like to check the yarn out, click here.
And to download the Le Scarabée Bleu pattern you can either find it on my site or go to the Ravelry pattern page.

Update: 31. March. 2016:
The pattern is now also available in French, thanks to the lovely Sandra of l'echappée laine!

Shetland Wool by L'échappée Laine, France (with love, on the knittingtherapy blog)

Comments

A New sock for you...

16/2/2016

Comments

Free ShellSock Recipe by La Maison Rililie Designs

My fancy-lacy-fun socks were started ages ago... and I found them in a forgotten project bag last month. As it happens so often, I fell in love with the stitch pattern all over again and finished them in no time... and even worked a second pair since.
I thought that you might like them too, so I wanted to share this little sock with you.
Mind you, it's not a complete pattern with multiple sizes. It's a recipe style thing - where you get the numbers for a European size 38 foot and some pointers on how to adapt the pattern for another size.
I hope that you like it!

In my opinion this stitch pattern looks its best in one single colour (an easy to wear, light grey is my own preferrence as you can see).

But I had to let loose on colours for the toe and the heel construction - like this I can have seemingly sombre and wearable socks to go with my monochrome outfits, while the real craziness is hidden in my shoes (and open only for private viewings…).

You can find the ShellSocks recipe/pattern for online viewing by clicking here
(I am sorry that there is no option to download the PDF at this time, just the possibility to read it via the blog. Free patterns get pirated and sold quite often it seems and I wouldn't like this to happen).
Make sure to check on the tips below before you start:

Some Tips for ShellSocks (or any sock knitting)

The STITCH PATTERN featured in this sock design is having yarn-overs before a purl stitch and before a knit stitch. Often you find that the yarn overs that are worked before the purl stitch end up to be much bigger in size than their sisters before the knit st and that results in an uneven lace fabric.
There are two ways to remedy that, depending on the look you like:

if you like small yo holes on both sides, then work the yo before the knit stitch as usual (from front to back) and the yo before the purl stitch from back to front. This will result in a twisted yo, that needs to be worked tbl in the next rnd.
if you like larger yo holes on both sides of the decreases (something I prefer for my socks, to make the lace design pop out more), then work both yo’s normally (from front to back), only give some extra slack to the ones before the knit stitch. You can achieve this by pulling the already worked yo a little bit forward with your index finger, while working the knit stitch.

Choose the best option depending on your own knitting style (if you are a tight or loose knitter) - or try both out to see what suits you best.

As you probably know already, I always like to design simple stitch patterns that are easy to memorise and where one can quickly find back into the repeat, even after having left the project quite urgently in the middle of the row, repeat or stitch pattern.

Read your knitting to find each new pattern repeat (ShellSocks by La Maison Rililie Designs)

In this case it is really obvious to find when one needs to work the single patterned row of the stitch pattern: Just take a look at the stitches and if you see that there are 3 rows of knit sts on top of the yarn overs, it’s time for the next patterned rnd. If there are less than 3, than go on and continue to knit around.
And it's even easier to count repeats here: Just count each yarn-over-hole and you know how many repeats you worked already.

In this pattern I use my favourite HEEL CONSTRUCTION that I like best in terms of fit and which is fairly quick to do: A gusseted short row heel, worked with german short rows.

I like to redistribute all the newly increased gusset stitches towards the instep needles on both sides and then put all the insole stitches on one single needle before working the short-rows on the heel, so that especially the wrong side rows are worked much more comfortable, without having too many needles in your way.

Short row heel in contrast colour for the Shell Sock by La Maison Rililie Designs

Put all the insole stitches on one single needle before working the short row heel (ShellSocks by La Maison Rililie Designs)

As a bonus you also get a guaranteed ladder-free heel in this way!
Afterwards, when you work the stripes on the heel flap and also on the toe section, don’t forget to twist the yarns to avoid holes at the colour-change (put the new colour over the old one from right to left once, before starting the round in the new colour).

The Shell stitch pattern has double decreases that tend to pull upwards and that can warp the stocking stitch stripes at the heel. This is why we end on the patterned row, just before working the heel. That way, when resuming working all around in pattern at the leg again, we continue with knit rows over the heel section in the next rnds, to avoid distortion on the striped heel.
This tip can be handy in all sock patterns with similar lace pattern repeats: You might want to make sure that the knit rnds of a stitch pattern (one that has stocking stitch rows in between decrease/yarn over rows) will be positioned right above the heel section.

Store your unused colour inside the sock while working the contrast coloured heel (ShellSocks by La Maison Rililie Designs)

And another GENERAL TIP which I am sure you all know already is this last one:

To work comfortably with the contrast yarn on the heel you can "store" your main coloured yarn inside the sock - like this it won't tangle with the other two skeins of yarn while you work the longer coloured heel sections.

Finally if you need more tips on AUGMENTING SIZE for this recipe, you can check out the notes on the second pair I knitted for my mum in size 39 here on my ravelry project notes here.

Comments

Marlon has safely arrived home...

3/2/2016

Comments

MarlOn cardigan, knit pattern by La Maison Rililie

It's been a year now that my cardigan pattern MarlOn was released in the wonderful amirisu winter 2015 issue! The gorgeous Japanese knitting magazine gave me back the rights to the pattern just recently and so it was able to join it's sisters here on my blog.
It is still available through ravelry of course - I just changed the layout of the English PDF pattern to the "rililie-approved-version" you all know (with yoke charts and so on).
The Japanese translation remains in the original amirisu layout though, since I wouldn't dare to touch it. Yes, my Japanese is non-existant... and sadly will remain so for quite some time!

I have a soft spot for this cardigan. After a bumpy start and lots of fretting I had to restart the whole project, but that gave me the opportunity to work out the construction details in a much more refined manner. This yoke was the result of quite some research to keep stripes intact, while working them in the usual short rows, for a higher back side.
It also got to be a kind of a hybrid between a sloped raglan shaping with some round yoke stuff thrown in at the front side.

The first couple, narrower stripes are quite at home on the delicate collarbone-area while they progressively get "fatter" towards the larger neck backside, as you can see above.

And then there is all this play with using denser and spaced out, fine and larger stripes to enhance the feminine body of an otherwise classic cardigan shape. This is all achieved by following a specific marled sequence and the use of 2 strands of yarn throughout.
"MarlOn" is all about having fun in choosing one's very own, unique colouring!

(and no, I haven't cut my hair - these are all pictures from when I finished the cardigan 2 years ago... just before sending it away from home, to far away Japan!)

An immense thank you to the lovely girls at amirisu for the excellent collaboration!
Starting today, you can find the pattern PDF in English and Japanese for direct download, either here on this site, or as before on ravelry.

Comments