The case for Moore

Moore is the latest design in the rock+purl collection and I’d like to tell you a bit more on the background and my design process for it, as well as give you an opportunity to see that this may well be the cardigan for you!

So, what was behind the idea? I was playing with some Rowanspun 4ply – a tweedy, woolly, thin (162y / 25g skein!) yarn. I have oodles of the stuff because when it became discontinued I bought it by the bucketload. It’s not completely different to Jamieson’s Spindrift, except the latter is a much rounder yarn.

Gauge is loose – 20sts/28rows. I wanted drape, drama and allow the tweed to keep me warm.

I was, initially, playing with a scarf or shawl idea, something that I could just accessorize with everything, but as I started introducing some short rows I identified an opportunity for the easiest to make garment I’ve ever designed.

The construction for Moore is different from any of my previous ones. For starters, the body is knit in one piece. From the small left front (this front is only as wide as the shoulder width), play with BO/CO moves to create the armhole, work across the back, work another armhole and work the right front (which in this asymmetrical piece encompasses the right shoulder and the entire front of the cardigan to meet with the skinny left shoulder.

When working the body, you should pay special attention to your row gauge – this is what will determine whether your garment fits or not.

 

The swing in the garment is created with short rows. For every X rows worked in MC you work a short row wedge in a different texture and a different colour (although I’d like to see someone play with a full on one-shade Moore… would it be you?). These short rows create the difference in width between upper and lower body, and given they’re textured, they allow for NO selvedge/unrolling/OMG my garment is riding up stitches – the stockinette sections won’t roll because of these short row wedges.

Edit – Forgot to mention… as the stockinette areas are not that wide, you can carry the contrast colour along between the first and second stitches to avoid having tons of ends to weave in!

You know what else helps? When you’re working a small row repeat pattern, the knitting goes SO much faster! When working the sample I kept thinking “oh let me just get to the next short row…. nah, the following one…. oooh armhole” and I was done so quickly. It’s also pretty mindless, so it’s perfect TV watching/kindle reading knitting.

As you’ve read before, you will need to work some BO/CO moves for the armholes. That’s me being me and you know I like seams for stability… if you’d like to make it faster and have an easier job on the sleeves, feel free to leave the sts unworked and provisionally CO for the other side. When you read the pattern it’ll become apparent what you’ll need to do!

After some initial blocking and finishing, you’ll need to work the drop-shoulder sleeves. I hear you say “Ruuuuth, weren’t you always saying you prefer set-in shaped sleeves??”. Yes I do, but as I also said, everything has its place.

Moore presents a positive ease, swing, easy-to-wear attitude and for that, drop shoulders work just fine. The armhole creation in the garment has a small amount of shaping and the sleeves, worked top-down, also have shaping. It’s not going to bunch horribly at the underarm, don’t worry!

When you’re done with those, you block again, you put your closures in place and… there you are. Garment done!

Swing high and mighty, brave knitter!

 

To get your own copy of Moore you can do so here -

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in the Shop R+P section  or in Ravelry.