Now that autumn shows signs of moving in, it's sweater time.
I finished this sweater ages ago, but it came up in conversation recently. When I began, I knew that I wanted a non-repeating striping pattern. At the time I was possessed of a strong symmetry reflex, and did not trust myself to wing a random pattern. I turned to the natural world.
You may know that pi, for example, is a non-repeating decimal fraction. I went trawling for the first million digits of pi, and had little luck that day. I did find the first million digits of e, though, which suited me just fine. Armed with enough non-repeating numbers to last me a lifetime, I started on a sweater for my mate. The stripe widths are governed by digits within e. The colors are discretionary.
I also came up with a seaming method that entertained me. (The back and front of the sweater do in fact match. The wonky fold, made to display the seam, suggests otherwise.) Using black, I picked up every stitch on the back of the sweater. I decreased periodically when knitting back to adjust for gauge. (This is my usual approach, by the way, rather than skipping rows when picking up.) For giggles, I threw in a ridge of the apple green. I stopped when I ended a right-side row in the pink. After doing likewise with the front, I used a three-needle bind off from the right side to close the seam.
fantastic sweater - love the dark & light colors you've used. The seam is quite cool too!
Posted by: heather | 16 September 2007 at 10:52
What a very cool seaming technique! Can you do an action post (i.e. one that gives us a step-by-step?)
Posted by: colleen | 13 September 2007 at 10:41
Wow - that is a fascinating way to be guided in making a sweater! And that seam was COOL.
Posted by: jordan | 13 September 2007 at 06:55
Pretty, pretty! Love the seam. It makes the sweater just that much better.
There is a frost warning here tonight. Sigh.
Posted by: Dorothy | 11 September 2007 at 23:45
I love the sweater and the seaming is ingenious.
Posted by: brenda | 11 September 2007 at 19:57
Pretty! What yarn did you use?
Posted by: Rebecca H. | 11 September 2007 at 19:31
What an awesome sweater. The colors are gorgeous together, and your method for randomizing the stripes worked out brilliantly. Now, what yarn did you use?
Posted by: Ariel | 11 September 2007 at 12:43
What a beautiful sweater! Lucky man. The colors are perfect together. You really have an eye for color.
Posted by: The Feminist Mafia | 11 September 2007 at 09:56
Lovely sweater!
I like the seaming, it really gives it a little pop!
Posted by: Jenn C. | 11 September 2007 at 08:59
That seam is fabulous! I love it (and the sweater, too).
Posted by: Bethe | 11 September 2007 at 08:51
What a wonderful alternative to a sewn seam -- so much more fun!!
Posted by: Dave | 11 September 2007 at 07:45
What a great seam! I love detail like that and try and work it in whenever possible. I also love the mathematical stripes. A is hooked on the Golden Ratio and I've been wanting to knit him a striped sweater using it. You've inspired me!
Posted by: Claudia | 11 September 2007 at 07:43
What a fascinating way to do a seam, love it! I'm so much better at 3-needle bind off than I am at seaming.
Posted by: Julie | 11 September 2007 at 06:45