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Heather's Living Breathing Knits
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Heather's Brocade Blouse
This blouse is similar to the long-sleeved
Danish brocade blouse in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Knitting in the Old Way,
with most of the blouse in the
brocade pattern used for the sleeve of the short-sleeved brocade
blouse.
The Danish brocade blouse is
a square-necked, side-vent blouse in a knit-purl pattern of diamonds
and snowflakes. Brocade refers to the texture.
The blouse in the book is a basic drop-shouldered square, but I
decided to knit it as a saddle-shouldered, gently shaped blouse
with set-in sleeves from the top down. I planned on side vents,
but ended up omitting them.
First, I cast on 11 stitches for each saddle shoulder and knit them
for 4 inches in King Charles' diamond brocade. I put the live stitches
on holders, and then picked up 18 stitches across the back edges of
the saddles, cast on 33 stitches for the back neck, and knit 2 inches
across the back. Then I picked up the front edges of the saddles and
worked the two halves of the front for 2".
Then, and this is really cool, I picked up 8 stitches along the right
front edge, 11 saddles stitches for the holder, and 8 stitches along
the right back edge to make a sleeve. Ditto on the other side, and
suddenly the front, sleeves, and back are one continuous knitted thing.
2 more inches of this, and I cast on 33 stitches for the front neck
and I'm knitting in the round. I increased the sleeves every 4th round
until I got to the underarm curve zone, and then I stepped up the
rate to every other round and also added increases on the front and
back.
What is amazing about this is that it's a lot like knitting a raglan,
but it's shaped like a garment with set-in sleeves. The thing has
real shoulders. I was concerned that the brocade pattern might be
a bit strange around the sleeve increases, but it looks like I planned
every stitch.
My fingers learned the brocade
pattern, and so it was pretty easy to keep track of where I was while I
worked the short rows for the bust shaping.
The arms stretched a lot after I washed the sweater, and so I had to
shorten them drastically. This picture was when the arms were still
knuckle-length.
The sweater was knit from four strands of Jaggerspun Zephyr wool/silk
yarn. It's as soft as a feather and as warm as a hug. A lovely sweater
to cuddle up inside on a cold evening.
I imagined wearing this sweater more as outer wear, and so made it a
bit larger than I would now prefer. I mostly wear it around the house
in the evenings. It feels great, and I enjoy wearing it.
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