Dawn Brocco's Life & Design Blog

I've finished the first Fana pullover sample for the KAL:



I want to order more wool and begin a 2nd sample (probably in black and red for a much more dramatic sweater), but I hope to post the first KAL segment tomorrow.

I think about 5-7 days apart should give everyone time to work on each part, though I'll keep the KAL links on the blog for awhile.

This is what made me decide to (finally) knit a Fana sweater.

I had been itching to start a new sweater and, as is typical with me, as a knitter I wanted something simple. But as a designer, I don't want to design something simple. No, that's not accurate.

I take the simple idea in my head and say, that's not good enough, complex enough, to write a pattern for. Now what can I do to it to make it design-worthy?

I wanted a simple striped sweater. Blue and white stripes, nautical-looking. Nothing earth-shattering. Just familiar and comfortable. Maybe a cardigan, maybe a pullover with a placket-like v-neck.

How boring, I thought. No-one's gonna want it.

So, I began swatching stitch patterns and color work patterns, putting this with that. Placing things here and there mentally. I prefer to see if I can *imagine* the sweater, rather than graph out each idea, which is too time-consuming.

The most I'll do is a rudimentary sketch, just to see if elements are balanced. At this point, I usually see a couple of good ideas that could be fleshed out. Until.

And there's always an *until*.

Something creeps up in my head that says, well, if you're gonna do THAT, why not just do THIS.

And THIS, this time, turned out to be a Fana sweater. Why do simple stripes or even a stripe-ish slip stitch pattern, when you KNOW you love doing colorwork (that's myself I'm talking to), and Fanas ARE stripey in appearance.

I've long admired Fana sweaters, just as I love Setesdal sweaters and Arans and Icelandic yoke sweaters and true Shetland wool Fair Isle jumpers.

I don't know why I design other things, I SO LOVE traditional, ethnic woolens. But they've been done already, and no designer wants to repeat what's been done. At least not without a few tweakings to keep it fresh!

So, as you can see, it has waist shaping, flared, square inset sleeves, and a wide, v-neck edging, which comes up the back of the neck. A cozy, weekend sweater, my favorite kind!

Labels: Fana