B is for Brocade

I had thought of a sweater sort of like this some time ago and just found it on Jenna's blog. Hers is Kaffe Fassett's Brocade from Rowan 38, and it looks lovely. My idea is to do something more fitted and without the baroque motif centered squarely over the girls.

It used to be that the girls were ... robust, so that design would have been a bit much. Now, post-child, they are smaller. Note: Moms who have yet to wean their wee ones, when I say "smaller", I mean SMALLER. Most of the other things that happened to this ol' piece of clay pre- and post-natal I knew about, thanks to books, the 'net, and most importantly my fecund friends. But no one mentioned that I'd end up down a cup size from my pre-pregnancy self.

I guess it's a good thing I only took up knitting just before getting pregnant. If I had a bunch of sweaters that now were too big, I'd be quite peeved. As it is some exciting bra shopping (exciting because the petite cheri was with me and took her shirt off, too) has salved my ego somewhat. I always wanted to be a "B".

So, back to Brocade. I'm not quite ready to plunge into colorwork (and have far too many projects in the queue at the moment) but will be someday. When I first saw Jenna's sweater, I contemplated knitting it in the round, but that really wouldn't be possible. I envision the motif (whatever it ends up being) wrapping around the sweater from front to back, perhaps even twining up the neck. This would make shaping the sweater a little more challenging, though doable. My new idea is to knit the body in one piece, only flat, which would ensure there wouldn't be any jogs on the side that has the motif. My skillz continue to improve with each project but I'd rather not have to rely on my seaming technique there. I'd seam it up on the "blank" side.

I would have to work out how to do the armholes, but I definitely think this can be done.

BTW, did you see the picture of the inside of Jenna's sweater? Amazing.