Inspiration: Cable Lace Altuzarra

style.com F2011RTW Altuzarra

This is old, but it'll be a little bit of a challenge to dissect. I could wear a silk skirt with a hip-high slit nowhere and I have no desire to wear fuzzy bedroom sandals. They're much too boudoir for me, like I should be wearing a silk dressing robe and pearls. I would wear this sort of sweater with some cuffed boyfriend jeans and a leather stiletto sandal.

So, here we go. Crew neck, about 1 inch of positive ease (a little more from the waist to hips), a very gentle slope raglan armhole and combo cables and lace. This is so complex and it's really difficult to see the details in this sweater. There are about 3.5-4.5 inches of ribbing at the waist and wrist cuffs and an inch or so around the boat neck. The cables on the body are edged with what look like yarn overs. I'm going to go ahead and assume that the cables are on a mostly purl background. You could make them look like they're moving from the center by shifting a purl bump from one side of the cable to the other. Then there is maybe some drop stitching and yarn overs on a stockinette background. 

The cables on the sleeves wrap nearly all the way around, which I love. You can do a simpler design of the sleeve by just crossing several diamond cables over each other around the entire sleeve. 

The color and texture of the sweater from the picture make me really think of a Bison fingering/sport weight. You could get the softest, most subtle halo that would make the crazy cabling look so effortless.

Inspiration: Off-Shoulder Chunky Knit Pullover

Today's

What a cute outfit. Ecru and white are so crisp together. Wearing the sweater off the shoulder, a denim skirt with a frayed hem, and some well-worn Converses makes it feel really casual and fun. No accessories necessary.

This is a drop shoulder pullover with no waist shaping and minimal neck shaping, 4-6 inches of positive ease. We'll call it boat neck shaping because it's so huge, it really doesn't matter. Knit the front and back rectangles flat and separately with 1-2 inches of 1x1 ribbing on the bottom edges. You can put in a little neck shaping if you like but I would just be lazy and leave all of the edges straight. Seam the body pieces, leaving a very wide neck hole that is 75-90% of the shoulder width, and the sleeve holes and the bottom 1/3 of the side edges un-seamed.

Knit the sleeves flat or in the round and joined to the body. You can't see it in the picture, but I would also put 2-4 inches of 1x1 ribbing at the wrist. It leaves the option of having one or both sleeves unrolled.

I could see using a 100% cotton like Sugar n' Cream or Peaches & Cream. It's a pretty large sweater, so less expensive yarn will give you a rustic look after a couple of washings and save you some cash. Blue Sky Alpacas has Organic Cotton in great colors and Knit Picks Simply Cotton Organic Worsted comes in natural un-dyed colors. Knit Picks' Shine Worsted is a cotton/rayon blend, which will add some more durability and a little shine.

A bamboo yarn like Bam Boo by Classic Elite Yarns would be gorgeous and shiny and heavy and a little more expensive. I've used Bam Boo and I like it. I would really go with the washing instructions. Machine washing will be fine, but it gets really roughed up and looses a lot of the gorgeous sheen.

Inspiration: Cabled Crew Neck Hoodie

City Hall

A grey cabled sweater is good enough for me, but this one has a hood!!!!! I have an unjustifiable love of hoodies. A little bit of yellow peaking out as an accent to the grey is always fine with me. 

Crew neck, cables, about 2in. positive ease, hood added after the collar. 2-3 inches of 1x1 ribbing edge the bottom hem (and, I'm assuming, the cuffs). The top edge is about an inch of 1x1 ribbing that is picked up (or sewn on) after the body is completed. The hood is picked up from (or attached at) the neckline just underneath the attached inside edge of the collar. I think you could have some issues with where to pick up stitches if you did the hood first. 

The large center cable looks like a horseshoe cable that turns outward and is slightly staggered. Instead of turning the adjacent cables on the same row, the right side cable is turned a row or two later. 

At first, I was thinking that the outside cables were a smaller version of the center cable, but it seems more like a single cable paired with a rib of similar width, but it's really difficult to see in this picture. My anal sensibilities make me EXTRA annoyed that the two outer cables seem to be turning the same direction. I would much prefer them to be mirrored.  

You could use a 2-ply for the muted cable effect on this sweater or a 3-ply for more defined cables. 

The sleeves have an extra detail of three centered columns of purls or maybe reverse knits (1-stitch cables). The hood has a folded hem.  

Inspiration: Long Cardigan

Where Is Summer

I love the idea of this cardigan. It's long and has a soft halo. The unfinished edges make the button bands and pocket tops roll in, which gives it a bit of a relaxed (read: messy) feel. Now, I say button bands because I'd prefer buttons as an option on a sweater like this, but it doesn't look like there are actually any on this sweater. I like the idea of the sweater though, with nicer finishing. Coupled with light fabrics and prints underneath, this is a really cute early fall outfit.

Simple boyfriend-style cardigan, deep v-neck shaping, raglan sleeves, low pockets, an inch or two of of positive ease. This could (and seems to) be done in one piece in the round, either top-down, putting the sleeve caps on holders before starting the body, or bottom-up, separating for the sleeve holes and finishing the front and back separately. Steek up the front center and add on a simple folded hem button band. There wouldn't be much aesthetic difference if it was knit in one piece flat with the sleeves joined afterwards. Pick up stitches on each front for simple flap pockets.

The soft halo is really nice and could be reproduced with an alpaca or a mohair blend, or if you want to get really extravagant, put some angora (rabbit, not goat) fiber in. I have a gorgeous yarn that's an angora blend. I think it's Classic Elite Fresco which is a 60% wool, 30% alpaca, 10% angora sport-weight with a gorgeous, subtle halo. It's spun a bit more tightly than the yarn used in the photo, but it would give a similar halo effect.

This is an experiment to see if I can reduce the size of the pictures so that the posts load a little faster. Do you prefer smaller pictures and faster loading or larger pictures so you don't have to click over to the link? Let me know in the comments! 

Inspiration: Oversized Loose-Knit Pullover

Silver Knit

Laid Back

Boat Hat

Love these over sized pullovers. Really long, cozy, loose knits with simple black accessories. Black and white (or silver) is always a classic. I especially love the open detail in the back of the second one, which would be pretty easy to make.

Knit the fronts and sleeves at a loose gauge with several inches allowed for ease. The back is knit in two pieces. The upper piece is knit with the same amount of ease as the fronts for 10-12 inches with a folded hem. Starting at the bottom of the lower piece, repeat the folded hem, beginning with the same gauge and ease as the rest of the pieces. Then, increase regularly moving toward the top. When seaming, just leave the seam between the upper and lower backs open. The difference in width will create that draping naturally.

Use a fiber that drapes well like plant fibers, like bamboo or cotton, or silk. A longwool would even work here, and you could layer in the cooler months. The loose gauge would also help add more drape.

Inspiration: Alexander Wang 2011 Fall RTW

My heart didn't race as I looked through this collection,  but I really enjoyed the way Alexander Wang used knits for fall 2011. Knits become silk or leather without any specific line between the two, which is a neat idea for combining a knit and a really not knit.

 

AWANG F2011RTW style.com 

I enjoyed the shapes and lengths of these sweater dresses and the extra high necks, especially the white one.

 

AWANG F2011RTW style.com

I really liked the mixture of the fuzzy knit (maybe mohair?) with the shiny, blush-colored silk. I can't say that I can find the value of a dickey in my wardrobe though.

AWANG F2011RTW style.com 

Or knee-high bubble legwarmers, but that's just me.