Have you ever wondered what goes through the minds of a knitwear designer as they touch a yarn for the first time? Do they come up with many ideas at once or are the more analytical in their approach? Jennifer Wood of Wood House Knits has just launched her latest cardigan design, Kerenza in Nua and I asked her what designing with Nua was like. She very kindly took some time to talk through her process:

I was so excited when Carol gave me a skein of her Nua yarn at TNNA and got even more excited when I started swatching with it. It felt so good in my hands. I knew anything I made with it needed cables to take advantage of the amazing stitch definition and an A-line shape to take advantage of the lovely drape.

 

After testing a few different cables, I landed on these Aran lace oval cables for the focus point, adding a few accessory cables and a garter stitch column—the perfect cable panel! To do something a little different, I knitted the yoke mostly in Stockinette stitch and added the cable panels near the end of the yoke.

For the cardigan I had in mind, the front edges needed to match and have only one closure at the top. Often, I hem my button bands on cardigans to have two layers to sew buttons onto. On this cardigan, I hemmed both front edges to add stability and to keep the edges from curling. A great advantage of hemmed edges is that, if you change your skeins on either end, you do not have to weave in the edges. You just tuck them into the hem!

To achieve the A-line shape, I hid the increases in the side panel. A basket weave edging and a tailored collar finish it off. The results are lovely and amazing—just like the yarn. I can’t wait to design something else with Nua!

I don’t know about you but I love glimpsing behind the scenes in design. You can appreciate the garment more by allowing you to see it through its creator’s eyes. You can find out more about Jennifer and her pattern collections including Kerenza over on her website or Ravelry.