So I did a thing. I designed a capelet. Shirley Paden had a contest called the Knitted Kingdom Design Quest and I decided to throw my hat in the ring. Apparently my aim was bad as I didn’t even place. But that is okay, as I had mixed feelings about the possibility of winning and having to send my finished capelet off to be modeled at Vogue Knitting Live. You had to incorporate a design element from one of her patterns, so I picked the cable and lace pattern from the Tige Cardigan. I think the dark purple yarn may not have been the best choice to show off the cable and lace pattern, and that probably counted against me.
I also did not do a sketch of the pattern - I mean seriously what is there to sketch? I do have a piece of graph paper where I did a bunch of maths and figured out the shaping for the body panels, but that is all. I also didn’t do a swatch for the cable and lace pattern - well really the panel above (which goes down the center back) was my swatch. I did do a stockinette swatch for the body panels, but who wants a picture of that? Anyway, I wanted a sort of military vibe with cable panels going up the shoulders like epaulets, and I also wanted panels down the front and down the back, so that pretty much determined the design. For the yarn I was thinking of a something hefty - a nice Aran weight. I also knew I wanted a dark purple and that I wanted a contrast color for the body panels. I went with some of my Sundara Yarn stash because she dyes up such luscious colors. Although the yarn is labeled as an Aran weight, by yardage and the way it knits up I think it is more of a DK.
Once I had knit all of the panels I joined them together and knit the collar, continuing the cable and lace pattern as established. At first I tried to work the body panels in situ, picking up stitches and joining as I went, but I really didn’t like the way that looked.
Granted blocking might have helped, I just didn’t think it would help enough, so I ripped it back and did them separately and then sewed them in. I used back stitch for sewing the panels in place.
Even though the contest was announced back in September, I didn’t cast on until December 1, and the entry was due on December 20, so I didn’t have much time. I almost dropped out because I thought I had to mail in the finished item, but the week before the deadline a submittal reminder came out, and when I clicked on the link it turned out that you only needed to submit photos. The submittal page itself was a bit of a pain. There were three possible categories of garment: Capelet, Opera Gloves, or Stockings, and the submittal page had fill ins for all three, and all three were required to be filled in. You could put N/A in the others, but they still wanted at least one picture, so I put pictures of my yarn in. I didn’t know what else to do. There were also discrepancies between what the announcement page said was required for the submittal and what the submittal form said was required. The finalists were announced a day late (on December 28, instead of December 27 as the announcement page indicated), and I still haven’t seen any pictures of the finalists.
Overall, as a design exercise, it was fun, and I’m happy with the result. As a contest experience it was a bit “meh”.
Yarn: Sundara Yarn Aran Merino in Sweet Violets and Last Sunset
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm, for the cable and lace panels) and US 5 (3.75 mm for the body panels)
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