Neon Neutral Triangle Club: The Designs

I promised earlier this week I'd go in to detail about my designs in the recently released Neon Neutral Triangle Club.

Here they be!

First up is Phospho Glow.
Sizes: 30 (34, 38, 42)(46, 50.5, 54)" bust

 

This sweater is close to my heart. It's in wonderfully delicate fingering weight, which means it wraps around you and drapes in a gentle way. It has a v-neckline that is juuuust the right amount of deep.

It's got long sleeves that have super understated puffs.  
And possibly my favourite detail, it has my favourite type of shaping placement: front bust increases and small of the back waist decreases. These make for smooth, soft ruffles and expand the sweater out where it needs expanding, and draws it in where it needs narrowing. I personally also find this type of shaping to be easier to modify either larger or smaller. Since the stitch changes happen in one row, it makes for slightly less math!

A bit more about those puffed sleeves:

I've learned a lot about the shapes of my body over the past couple of years because of my interest in sewing. One of the things I've learned is my shoulder shape, which is sloped.
Manufactured clothing is generally cut for shoulders that are higher and straighter than mine, which creates fit issues for tops. As knitters, we know that fitting the shoulder is a very important part of fitting a sweater.
Shoulders that are of a standard work well with this sweater's sweet little puffed sleeves. My own shoulders have that slope, which means that they don't fill out that puff and thus it would collapse on itself and I'd lose the puffed sleeve look entirely.
My solution to that problem is a pair of shoulder pads.
GASP!
I can feel that intake of breath as you read that dirty, dirty pair of words. These shoulder pads do the job of making this sweater look the way I want it to, and they were easy as pie to create.

Shoulder Pads
I used sport weight yarn, but this is the sort of thing that's perfect for scrappy bits in nearly any weight you might have. The lighter the weight, the more control you have over ultimate thickness of the pad.
I chose to knit two triangles for each pad to give me a thickness of about 0.5". Maybe even less than that. This is a very simple cast on, decrease for the tip sort of knit, which will always depend on your own shoulder shape.

Neon Bon Bon
One size: 9" wide and 9.5" long at front
Three weights: bulky, worsted, fingering

Fingering Weight

Where Phospho Glow is complex, Neon Bon Bon is a sweet wee simple bonnet, written out for three different weights. It's great for using up some half hanks you might have left over; knit flat and seamed up the back, it features the fun detail of pom poms at the end of each long tie and a handful of short rows to angle the bottom edge for a comfortable fit.

Bulky Weight

I LOVE bonnets, as you may have guessed. They're usually quick knits. They don't wreck your hair (well, not as much as other hats). And they're SO cute!!

Worsted Weight

I'll be posting again in the coming days about the great patterns by Emma and Sarah in the Neon Neutral Triangle Club. And if you're interested, I'll talk a bit more about my shoulder pad experience!