White is a colour too

May.11, 2010

Shepherd Waistcoat – cream and white free form knitting in a unisex piece

This piece was created with an idea of the organic shape – growing and changing by the changes in my stitches. I gathered all my whites and creams together – and there were quite a few. Some were knitted as is, and some were knitted with two or three strands to make up the required yarn thickness to more or less match in tension.

The knitting stitches include garter, loop, stockinette, Yarn overs, drop stitch, rib, etc to create the organic shape but still keep the stitch numbers overall correct to the pattern. I did increse my stitches strategically and then remember to decrease them again to add some of the curves into the knitting. The yarns and stitches were generally changed on a whim – as I created and viewed the piece while I was knitting it in one piece from the bottom.

I used a basic waistcoat pattern and then I played.

You can do that as well – give yourself permission to play with yarn and stitches and see just what transpires. The trick is to maintain the stitch count and not have stitches that will make the piece wider where the armholes should be. There can be freedom there as well – but you do want a reasonably normal area around the arms. The front has a V shape on one side and the other went straight up to a more rounded neck line – but the shoulders had the same stitch count for the 3 needle cast off.

Click through to the Etsy listing here

more photos of the Shepherd Waistcoat on Facebook

I will not provide a pattern for the piece as it is a truly free form creation.