Hello all you lovely knitters here on this forum, and do hope you can help me.
I am a confident knitter, I learnt how to Swiss darn this year, and I am thinking about making a Christmas jumper for my 2 year old Great Nephew , and want to Swiss darn my own motive on the front.
I have a pattern I really like Lovecraft Summer Walk Sweater, but it is not in stocking stitch, would I be OK to knit the Sweater , but just do stocking stitch on the front, so I can Swiss darn my motive on the front.
I do hope this isn’t a daft idea, or a silly question, and hope one of you lovely people can advise me, and thanks for any advise you can offer me.
Not a daft idea, and not a silly question. It’s a great idea! What a lovely gift for your great nephew.
I would say you can work that sweater in stockinette, any more stitch pattern than this though could alter the sizing and stitch count needed, but I think the one you’ve chosen will be fine.
Another option is to follow the stitch pattern on the sweater on the back and sleeves nd create a rectangle of stockinette on the front for your Swiss darning. By the way thanks for introducing me to this name I only knew it as duplicate stitch until today.
There is an online site where knitting graph paper set to your own knitting gauge can be downloaded and printed if you need any.
I hope we get to see the progress. I made a sweater with my son’s own drawings on which was a mix of intarsia, surface crochet and Swiss darning and it was so personal and fun.
Good idea and perfect gift. Knit in stockinette stich whole jumper (why not) follow pattern in numbers of stitches only.
Have a fun it is wonderful gift
Just remember that row gauge is not the same in stockinette and garter. My first impulse would be to do all stockinette. Maybe a band of stockinette across back and front with the rest in garter stitch? I don’t know how tall your motif is.
Is there garter stitch on the pattern GG? I don’t remember seeing any. I thought it was mainly reverse stockinette with some vertical stripes of stockinette. That was why I thought the size an gauge wouldn’t be too different if made fully in stockinette.
You’re right. I thought I’d read garter stitch but looking again it’s not there. I can’t tell much from the photo in the link. Thanks for pointing this out!
Thanks for your advise, nice to know it wasn’t a silly idea, have been knitting a fair few years now, but always followed a pattern as written.
I am going to do back and sleeves as in pattern, but love your suggestion about a stocking stitch panel for the motive, it won’t be anything to complicated, probably a very basic Santa or Rudolf.
I am planning to do a test piece first to see if I like the look of it, hoping I have wool in my stash.
Swiss darning was something my dear mum used to do, but I never learnt how to do it, I usually knit intarsia, but this year decided to give Swiss darning a try, and really fell in love with it, easier than juggling all those multiple balls of different coloured wools. I didn’t realise Swiss darning and duplicate knitting was the same thing either, so learnt a new term in ‘duplicate knitting’
Thanks once again for your advise, and the confid7to give it a try.
You didn’t say you needed a pattern but just in case, this is pretty cute, you can make it all as you like with the Swiss darning or do a mixture of surface crochet or embroidery techniques too. This one has a pompom nose which is nice but you can adapt it to a flat nose too. My son would love this but I’m not planning on knitting him a sweater this year. But maybe you prefer to draw up your own picture.
I’m sure you can do it. Challenges shall be met, curve balls hit out of the stadium! Now if I could learn to read I wouldn’t mention unimportant things that are important when I forget. lol