Ease

Over the past year or so I've become increasingly smitten with Brooklyn Tweed patterns.

I'm drawn to (and in the case of "Ranger" challenged by) the way BT patterns create/incorporate and lend style to garments by taking advantage of ease - in particular the use of positive ease.

BT Look Books are a great source of visual information about this so I've downloaded a number of them onto my tablet and I flip through them and ponder their contents whenever and wherever the mood strikes.

In a recent Look Book there is a "dress" called "Amherst" (really its a jumper but I digress) that I think captures this idea especially when viewed opposite another dress "Ossel" in the recent Twist Collective.

In the past I would have been drawn to "Ossel" but now I'm recognizing the looser fit of"Amherst" is better suited to me. It seems more relaxed, less in your face and in keeping with the wider trends I'm interested in beyond the knitting world.

I was just over at Juicy Knits reading about her latest FO. She makes the same point there today observing a trend away from  the fitted knits many of us have been struggling to achieve over the past several years (Hence the number of books and workshops on the topic.)

I'm starting to see garments need to "fit"- but the way they fit need not be tight. The knitted fabric doesn't have to be the exact size and shape of me. Duh!

Of course I went too far with this when I worked up Ranger for My Beloved last winter. Too much drape. Not enough fit.

So now one of my current projects is Jared's "Guernsey Wrap" - kind of an exercise in working a drapey fabric where, being a shawl, fit is rather irrelevant. To be clear though, its not lace - no YO's or K2tog's. Its all knit and purls but the pattern explicitly states...

"...The key element in the project is...extreme blocking (to) yield the intended dimensions and ideal drape for the finished product..."

Its knit at a bit of a loose gauge and then we'll see what the blocking will do.

And so we come to the first weekend after "back to school"! Hopefully, we'll get Number One Son into a new room with all his things I'll work away at the Guernsey Wrap too. Have a great weekend!

Thanks for dropping by!