A.R.A.N. PROJECT

Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 08:42:05 -0400 (EDT)
To: knit@bolis.com
Subject: KNIT: A.R.A.N. #16 - Body Plan

Good morning all

Good to hear that Leigh is still around and knitting as outrageously as
ever, and Debra... Kipping Puppy or a Frogging Guppy...too cute! 

Good July morning all!

The body of the Aran is composed below.  It has been a difficult but fun
task to assemble the directions.  I could not have gotten this far without
Esther...her clear sightedness last month when I was discussing which
cables to use led to all sorts of ideas. Thank you, Esther! 

I cannot find a way to put the Rabbit Ears Cable into the body...the look
I am shooting for is massive, and I think, perhaps, the REC can be used in
the raglan decrease. In deciding what to use where, I had the greatest
pleasure communing with Alice Starmore's ARAN KNITTING.  What a wonderful
book.  Those of us knitting today are truly fortunate to have so many
references at hand.  To assure that they KEEP COMING, be sure that you BUY
THEM ALL! 

I wanted to keep a lot of the Double Seed Stitch we used in the sleeves
between the cabling in the body. I am attracted to uniformity and
continuity in any design. That dilutes the massiveness of the look, but I
think it is right for this sweater.  Sometimes the design decisions you
make at the beginning limit what you can use later on.  If I had to
redesign this sweater, I would enclose all the cables in a single column
of twisted knit stitch...an element one industrious knitter came up with
and wrote me about (forgive me...I can't recall who you are), and
something that Alice Starmore did in her Celtic sweaters in AK. Stunning.

So, to break up the length of the actual pattern post, I am submitting the
plan here, and all the stitches and numbers tomorrow. 

Cable Patterns

Knitlist Celtic Plait will run down the center front and back.  It will be
flanked by a mini-strip of Double Seed Stitch (6 sts). Then comes Ravelled
Braid (thank you, Esther...BARBARA WALKER II p. 175-6...aka Aran Diamond
and Braid in TRADITIONAL ARAN KNITTING by Hollingworth p. 39), then Double
Seed Stitch, then 11 stitches of Simple Plait Cable (TAK by Hollingworth
p. 41 but found EVERYWHERE) then enough Double Seed Stitch to make up the
width of the sweater. 

I suggest everyone get out some yarn and needles and start swatching as
soon as tomorrow's post appears.  I will explain why below... 

MAKING A CUSTOM SIZED SWEATER IN A HAPHAZARD DESIGN FASHION (my
specialty)...Measure the width of the Knitlist Celtic Plait(KCP) on your
completed sleeve.  Measure exactly how many inches 6 sts worth of Double
Seed Stitch(DSS) covers. Do a gauge swatch of Raveled Braid(RB) and Simple
Plait Cable (SPC)when the directions come. Add all the measurements
together as follows:

SPC - DSS - RB - DSS - KCP - DSS - RB - DSS - SPC

Now, the width of the front of the A.R.A.N. can be adjusted by adding
whatever DSS you want on either side. Once you have your desired width
(mine is 56"), you go back and count all the stitches you will need to
accomplish this. Then, you do one round of PURL, evenly increasing as you
need to. 

Tomorrow...stitch charts! So, get your graph paper ready.

Claudia knitting at Countrywool overlooking Blue Hill in the Hudson Valley
of NY State in the USA
Countrywool@berk.com
get the complete Anyknitter's Revolving Aran Network (A.R.A.N.) pattern
at: Esther's Knitting Page   http://www.cs.oswego.edu/~ebozak/knit