Photos: Diana Ascarrunz @dianascarrunz for Pom Pom x Hobbii

It’s been a little more than six months since I lost my grandmother, the woman who taught me to knit. Since then I have taken a much needed break, started working on fixing a lingering hand injury, and am now back to tell you about my first pattern release in awhile, a sleeveless summer tank available for free and in 9 sizes. (Newsletter subscribers were notified first, so don’t forget to sign up if you haven’t.)

Jump to the free pattern: Bevelled Tank by Heidi Gustad/Hands Occupied, Pom Pom x Hobbii, summer 2024.

In my December newsletter, I announced that I was soliciting test knitters for a pattern that had originally been selected for the summer ’24 issue of Pom Pom Quarterly magazine. However, the magazine ceased publication after its spring ’24 issue, leaving in-progress designs unpublished. (It happens.) As a result, I’d begun the long process of editing, testing, and photographing the pattern for independent release through the Hands Occupied pattern shop and Ravelry.

Before I was done with that process, Pom Pom Quarterly’s former editors reached out with an exciting proposal for the pattern. Post-magazine, they’d begun to partner with yarn companies to produce high quality pattern collections. They wanted to include designs from the would-be current issue of Pom Pom Quarterly in a new collection for Hobbii yarn, including my Bevelled Tank. I worked with the same technical editors I would have for the magazine on this one, and as you can see from the photos, Pom Pom’s team did an amazing job of styling the garment to the beautiful standards they’re known for.

MORE ABOUT THE PATTERN
The Bevelled Tank is a sleeveless cotton top designed with 4″ of positive ease and a cropped length for summer. It is knit in two panels from the bottom up and seamed at the sides and shoulders. Each panel features easy intarsia colorwork. Stitches are picked up at the sleeves for a simple curled stockinette stitch finish, as well as at the cast-on edge and collar for stranded colorwork and folded hems. The shoulder seam is designed to sit slightly towards the back when worn.

Sizes
1 (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

Measurements
Finished Chest (Fullest Point) Circumference:
81.5 (91.5, 101.5, 112, 122, 132, 142, 152.5, 162.5)cm / 32 (36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64)” – to be worn with 10 cm / 4” positive ease
Model’s height is 170 cm / 5’7” with a chest (fullest point) circumference of 86.5 cm / 38” and is wearing a size 3.
Please note: Only 2″ of positive ease is shown in the photos.

The mood board for this collection featured beautiful stained glass images, which is such a lovely design prompt for summer. The second I saw it I had this idea for mixing simple intarsia and stranded colorwork, and I’m happy with how my design turned out. But that’s enough from me on the adventures of taking a design from concept to published. You never know where the journey will take you!

Don’t forget – you can get your hands on a copy of the new Bevelled Tank pattern for FREE, exclusively at Hobbii yarn. 

Post contains affiliate links.

Meet Yarn Citizen, a new line of sustainably sourced and affordably priced yarn from Jimmy Beans Wool. This yarn is made from ends leftover from the process of milling fiber into yarn, diverting them from landfills. At the same time, the low cost of these ends allows today’s review yarn (Yarn Citizen Harmony Worsted) to retail at under $15 per 100g skein at the time of this writing.

Read on for a brief review of this yarn for both knitting and crochet, and enter to win a kit featuring a sweater’s worth of Harmony Worsted at the bottom of this post.

THE YARN: Yarn Citizen Harmony Worsted

Colorway pictured: Honeycomb
Skein details: twisted hank / 211 yds/193 m / 100g // 50% wool/50% alpaca
Knitting needles: US 7-9 / 4.5-5.5mm // 16-20 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm)
Crochet hook: US 7 / 4.5 mm // approx. 18 sc = 4 inches (10 cm) Crochet hook sizes not listed on label. This is what I swatched based on the needle size listed.
Pros: Yarn Citizen Harmony Worsted has a great price, and is sustainably sourced from female artisans by Jimmy Beans Wool, a women-led company. (Source.) If you’re looking to be mindful in your consumption but are a human on a budget, this yarn could be a great fit for you.
Cons: This yarn is really lightweight for a worsted weight yarn, and it’s not the springiest. I recommend swatching with this yarn before casting on to get a sense of how it will work for your project. (Then again, I tend to recommend swatching in most circumstances. )
Pattern Ideas: Harmony Worsted would be a great fit for a smaller gauge version of the Herringbone Foldover Clutch for knitters. For crocheters, I recommend the classic Ripple Wrap.

THE GIVEAWAY

Jimmy Beans Wool has provided an entire kit of yarn featuring Yarn Citizen Harmony Worsted. The kit is for their Grandpappy Cardigan, which you can read more about here. Giveaway is open to U.S. only. Enter in the box provided below or at this link.

If you’re a yarn company that might be a good fit for this series, please email heidi -at- handsoccupied -dot- com.

Intarsia knitting often leaves us with a few (or a lot) of ends to weave in. Weaving in an end incorrectly can leave you with little eyelet-looking holes where new colors are joined. And weaving in an end in the wrong place can result in a too-bulky appearance on the right side, affecting the appearance of the finished design. 

In intarsia knitting, good tension is the key to achieving a correct looking finished design – that is to say, not squished or stretched. Good tension comes from knitting yourself a large gauge swatch and blocking it to confirm you’re knitting the correct amount of stitches and rows per inch. Good intarsia tension also comes from a couple more things: good technique when you’re working an intarsia join, and correctly/thoughtfully/carefully weaving in your ends.

This blog post & YouTube tutorial are about weaving in intarsia ends, but If you’re looking for tips for working better intarsia joins, that’s right here.

I talk about this more in the video embedded in this post, but I want to begin by saying you don’t have to be hyper meticulous with every little end you’re weaving in (unless you want to be). When I’m not making samples for publication or photography, I try to remember that finishing something is better than it sitting perfect and unfinished forever. (Spoiler alert: if you watch this post’s video, you’ll see me confess to not having woven in ends on the pictured pumpkin sweater that I made FOUR years ago. It happens!) That being said, I strive to make samples for public consumption as polished as possible. As a result, I’ve gotten pretty good at garment finishing and blocking.

Tips for weaving in ends to achieve clean looking intarsia:

• weave in ends at joins or edges whenever you can
• duplicate stitch can be used to weave in ends, but it can add bulk
• sometimes the added bulk of duplicate stitch can be used to “fill out” a loose stitch as you weave in ends
• weaving in intarsia ends at joins works best with whip stitch (and looks a little like candy canes, bonus!)
• when you weave in an intarsia end at a color join, don’t forget to interlock the tail like an intarsia join to avoid holes in your finished knit
• if you weave your ends in the wrong direction, they can not only affect finished tension, but they also can have a horseshoe (open bottom) shape rather than a teardrop (closed bottom) shape
• Don’t weave too many ends into the same intarsia joins/floats. 2-3 (maximum) ends should be woven into the same places.

Weaving in Ends: Tips for Intarsia – video tutorial

In the video, I go a little more in depth on each of the tips above, explaining as well as demonstrating what (the heck ) I’m talking about. Intarsia seems so fun and childlike and colorful at a glance, but there really are a couple tricks to success with this notorious technique.

If you feel anxiety when it comes to knitting intarsia, you’re not alone. This tutorial, which includes a video demonstration of the tips and concepts covered, should help assuage that anxiety. Today is all about how to knit better (cleaner, crisper, more even) intarsia joins.

In intarsia knitting, changing between one color and another is referred to as a join. You’ll encounter a few different kinds of intarsia joins, depending on the pattern you’re knitting. There’s joining a new color to start knitting a section in that color, and there are vertical, diagonal and horizontal joins.

“Horizontal Intarsia Joins“

A horizontal join doesn’t really exist in intarsia because at that point, your technique is essentially the same as working a row of stranded colorwork (also known as fair isle) knitting. You’ll work with floats, which are the strands of unknit yarn that run across the back of your knitting when you’re knitting with more than one color in the same row. With any stranded knitting, the trick is to avoid over or under-tensioning your floats so the stitches on the right side of the fabric appear even, without puckering.

Vertical and Diagonal Intarsia Joins

Vertical and diagonal joins happen all the time in intarsia. Vertical joins occur when several rows’ joins align, well, vertically on top of one another for several rows. On right side rows, which are usually comprised of knit stitches, you’ll knit in your row until it’s time to change colors. Then you’ll drop your working yarn, bring up the new color from beneath the old one, and continue to knit in the new color. Since this is a vertical join, the time to change colors will be obvious.  

Vertical Joins Tip

Observant knitters who’ve tried intarsia before may have noticed that their end-of-section stitches end up a little bigger than they’d prefer, and this phenomenon is especially obvious on vertical color changes. To achieve more even vertical joins, it’s not some magic involving extra twists or weaving in ends in some special way or even blocking. It’s a simple tug on the tail of the new color of yarn you’re switching to before knitting into it, working a vertical intarsia join.

For me, this phenomenon is better suited to explanation via video, so please check out what I’m describing in the video embedded below. A photo tutorial is linked at the bottom of this post in the Useful Links section as well.

Diagonal Joins Tip

Rather than occurring in a straight line, diagonal intarsia joins are offset, often by just a few stitches. The main thing to keep in mind is not over tensioning your working yarn. A trick I use, especially if I’m worried about a particularly wide diagonal join, is borrowed from two-handed stranded colorwork knitting. I work the diagonal intarsia join, then I grab the dropped yarn with my right hand pinky as if to tension it for knitting throwing style. That opens up the little intarsia float in the new color, which can help with tension.

No matter the type of intarsia join you’re working (vertical, diagonal, right side, wrong side), intarsia joins are simply a matter of bringing the new yarn up from under the working yarn, the old yarn over the new. Often this action is described as a twist, but thinking of it as a handshake or two people walking with their elbows linked is more helpful.

Video Tutorial: Tips for Better Vertical & Diagonal Intarsia Joins

And here’s those tips in video form, because sometimes a demonstration is the simplest way to illustrate a 3D concept. :)

Useful links about intarsia joins

Neater Intarsia: A simple fix for uneven stitches around a vertical color change – Yarnsub
Shout out to this post for existing – I thought I was being weird by manually tensioning vertical joins to make them extra crispy before I found this post. Now we can all have crispy joins together!

Intarsia Join – Åsa Tricosa
A straight-to-the-point overview with photos of how to do intarsia joins. I’m obsessed with their description of intarsia joins and referenced part of it in the introduction to this post. Here’s the full quote: “There is nothing mysterious nor difficult about changing colours between one block of colour and another. This is sometimes referred to as an intarsia join. The rule: OLD OVER new. Then you bring up the new yarn around the old. No twisting or any other shenanigans.” … To me, this is like poetry.

It can be time consuming and frustrating to have to re-count rows over and over again as you knit, especially over long stretches of stockinette stitch and with hard-to-see yarn. Here are 3 easy ways to keep track of your row or round count in knitting. (The best part: none of these involve a post-it note.)

This tutorial was designed with Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along knitters in mind. As someone who’s knit two adult-sized versions of the vest*, the back panel features a lot of stockinette stitch… in all black yarn. Read on for my favorite tips and tools for counting knitting rows, and scroll to the bottom of the post for a video tutorial demonstrating each method.

Knit Along overview / Enter to win the awesome KAL prize pack here. / 10 useful tutorials for knitting the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest / KAL Lesson 1: Understanding Intarsia Gauge / More coming soon!

Tip 1: Row Counters, Row Counter Rings, Row Counter Apps, etc.

One way to keep track of your rows is by noting how many you’ve worked on a piece of paper, or by tracking it with a counting device. I have this row counter ring from Knitter’s Pride as an example here, but I grew up using a similar plastic counter that fit onto the end of my straight needles. I even have used a free app on my phone.

A downside of this method is forgetting to move the counter at the end of a row and having to recount the section you’re knitting to confirm your counter isn’t off. Of the various row counter options out there, the ring is a nice one because it keeps the stitch count physically, literally close to where you’re knitting, making it harder to forget.

Tip 2: Scrap Yarn

When I started knitting sweaters for myself, I fell in love with simply using scrap yarn to track my rows. Essentially you’re sewing a loose running stitch in between two columns of stitches at a consistent interval to help track how many rows you’ve worked.

How to do it:

Cut yourself a piece of scrap yarn thats a little longer than the estimated total length of your project. If you’re knitting a sweater or top, you can use your own body to estimate the length you’ll need. If you’re using a long-tail cast on for your project, you can incorporate this extra length into your long tail cast on for a couple fewer ends to weave in. (The video at the bottom of this post shows a sweater panel that uses this extra long tail trick if you’d like to see an example.) If you’re not using the extra long tail trick, you can leave the scrap yarn tail loose or secure it to the cast on edge to avoid accidentally pulling it out.

Next, you’ll knit your row or round until you reach your scrap yarn, then draw it in between the stitch you just knit and the subsequent stitch. I love this method because it’s cheap, and you can track your rows using any multiple of stitches you wish. Just remember which multiple you’re counting with. 

A demonstration of how to do this with live stitches is featured in the video below.

Tip 3: Chain Row Counters

More recently, I stumbled across one of my new favorite notions that’s sort of a combination of the scrap yarn and row counter tool methods of row counting: the Chain Row Counter from Twice Sheared Sheep. It features numbers 0 through 9, as well as this thing they call a Melody Clip for tracking what “decade” of numbers you’re working on. (Full disclosure, I have an affiliate relationship with Twice Sheared Sheep, but I signed up after realizing how frequently I was using the row counter tool in my own knitting.)

Here’s how it works: Knit your row until you reach your Chain Row Counter, which can double as a stitch marker by the way. When you reach the counter, insert the tip of your needle in to the next highest number’s chain, drop the old chain, and continue knitting. When you reach a 0 number like 10, 20, or 30, you move the Clip to the appropriate position. These also come in Circle Row Counters if you’re working in the round and prefer that option.

Video Tutorial

As promised, here’s a quick video overview of each method discussed (about 5 minutes total) to help explain them.

Notions were provided by the companies mentioned. Opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links, see site policies.

The Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along giveaway prizes have all been assembled. (If you don’t know what a Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along is, this post will fill you in.) That means it’s time to reveal what they are and how to enter to win this awesome package, worth about $225. Read on for details about what’s included and from whom, and find the giveaway entry form at the bottom of this post. Good luck!

About the prizes

First up, Brooklyn Tweed, the yarn brand the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest was designed with, has generously provided a $100 gift card. Whoever wins will get to pick their own yarn, which is all anyone ever wants in life, right?

There are also 3 scents of Scented Stitches Stitch Balm in the prize pack: Cheer, Power and Confidence. These essential oil-infused balms can be applied to your tensioning finger to protect and nourish your skin, but at the same time, infusing your knitting or crochet with a nice scent. Hence, Scented Stitches. I am using the lavender-forward Calm in this photo.

Next up, Twice Sheared Sheep provided us with two notions that are both perfect for this knit along. Their Cat Clip Removable Stitch Markers are not only cute, but they’re available in 3 sizes and are like an elevated version of the incredibly useful plastic ring stitch markers we all know and love. They also provided one of my new favorite notions, their Chain Row Counters. (I like it so much that I’m including it in a video tutorial I’ve shot for this KAL that you’ll be seeing soon.)

Please note that the finish of the stitch markers in the giveaway will be bronze, and the chain row counter features an in-progress sweater rather than a sheep for the charm. I used my own versions of these tools for the photos so I didn’t have to unpackage your prizes.

Last but not least, Channypeas Corner included three enamel pins and a couple of cute stickers. I love seeing the pin and sticker version of the ‘make something’ design side-by-side. Super adorable!

Enter the giveaway

Here’s where you can enter to win this bundle of giveaway prizes, including a $100 Brooklyn Tweed gift card, stitch markers and a row counter chain from Twice Sheared Sheep, Scented Stitches’ Stitch Balm in 3 scents, and enamel pins and stickers from Channypeas Corner (approximate retail value: $225). Enter in the box provided below or here.

After announcing the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along, I had a couple of knitters reach out who are super excited to make the vest, but are brand new to intarsia (and in one respectably brave case, new to knitting). This post is all about rounding up the videos & written (blog post) tutorials that might come in handy as you knit the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest. There are 10 videos, 7 about intarsia, plus a bonus 11th video, the first video of this knit along.

September marked 13 years since I started blogging & Hands Occupied, so sometimes it is surprisingly easy to forget all of the tutorials I’ve done. Several of them cover techniques I love to design patterns with. The Spiral Hill Sweater Vest pattern from the new Nightmare Before Christmas knitting book was designed with a German Twisted Cast On, Make 1 (M1R & M1L) increases, intarsia colorwork, and picked up stitches, so scroll on for all of the Hands Occupied tutorials that can help you successfully knit your vest. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!

German Twisted Cast On

This knitting cast on is similar to the widely-used long tail cast on, but includes an extra twist that provides added yarn to each stitch of the cast on, resulting in a stretchier cast on edge. This cast on is great for socks, mittens and sweater sleeves – really any edge you would want a little stretch for!

Make 1 Increases

Make 1 Right (M1R)

Learn how to work a M1R stitch in knitting. A M1R results in an increase of one stitch when worked.

Make 1 Left (M1L)

Learn how to work a M1L stitch in knitting. A M1L results in an increase of one stitch in between two stitches when worked.

Intarsia 101

Intarsia 101: How to Knit Intarsia

Get acquainted with intarsia, a method of colorwork knitting, which allows knitters to create isolated blocks of color as well as intricate multicolor motifs. For the purposes of this introductory tutorial, basic intarsia worked in stockinette stitch is featured, along with lots of tips and tricks to keep knitters from overthinking and get on with it. With a little practice, you’ll be an intarsia wizard. ;)

Intarsia 101: How to Estimate Yarn Tails

Learn how to estimate the amount of yarn you’ll need to work a section of intarsia colorwork in knitting. An easy trick is demonstrated, along with tips and tricks to help knitters avoid common tail estimation pitfalls.

Intarsia 101: How to Manage Yarn Tails 3 Ways

Once you’ve estimated your intarsia yarn tail length, you’ve got a few options for how to manage it. Whether you prefer fast and loose, bobbins or a yarn butterfly, this video will show you how and why you might want to use each method.

The Case for Disorganized Intarsia

Learn why you might wan to try intarsia knitting without tail management of any kind. This quick demo helps illustrate why you might want to play it fast and loose with this sometimes-intimidating technique.

How to Knit Intarsia without Bobbins

If you want to knit intarsia, but are turned off by all the tail estimation and bobbin creation, don’t think you have to miss out on this technique! Learn how to knit intarsia by working from both ends of a single skein at once, avoiding tail estimation and bobbins entirely.

How to Pre-plan an Intarsia Knitting Project (in-depth)

You’ve mastered the basics of how to knit intarsia, but your new pattern is a little more involved. How do you know how many yarn tails you’ll need to successfully make this pattern (without ending up with a ton of unnecessary yarn breaks)? This video will walk you through how to break down an intarsia chart into sections, decide how many yarn balls your pattern will require, and get the stitch count you’ll need to estimate your tail length.

How to Weave in Intarsia Ends

Intarsia can be an intimidating knitting technique. If you’re watching this video, you might find yourself in this boat: You’ve mastered the technique and are SO excited because you’re almost done with your project…… And then you remember how many ends you’ve got to weave in. So many folks find weaving in ends to be one of the most frustrating parts of the skill, and with all colorwork, ends are a necessary part of intarsia. Let’s walk you through how to weave in all of those pesky ends, specifically for intarsia colorwork.

Please note: In a couple weeks, I’ll be doing another video on weaving in intarsia ends, which will address more of the intarsia tail-weaving questions I occasionally receive. Inquiring minds want to know even more on the subject, and I have more to share. Because I’m a weirdo with a passion for technique, what can I say?

New: Understanding Gauge in Intarsia Knitting

In case you missed it: the first video lesson for the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest is live on YouTube as well, and it’s all about better understanding gauge in intarsia.

First off, welcome to the first blog post of the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along, running for the month of October. Everything you need to know about knit along logistics can be found in this blog post. Since the book/pattern reveal was just last Tuesday, I realize folks might still be waiting for yarn and books to arrive. For that reason, we’re starting the knit along with a lesson* in gauge, everyone’s favorite subject in knitting! For real though, the topic of how to knit intarsia that doesn’t look squished, stretched, or otherwise suspicious consistently comes up in emails & comments I get from knitters. (The other topic is weaving in ends, but that will be something we talk about in a few weeks!)

*This is an educationally-focused knit along, I’m going to refer to each blog post & video as a lesson. I tried to come up with something cute, but all of my ideas were too confusing.

On to the lesson!

Spiral Hill Sweater Vest Knit Along Lesson 1: Why does my intarsia look squished?

In knitting, the first thing we (are supposed to) do when we start a new project is knit a gauge swatch. We look at the pattern, figure out the recommended yarn, needles, and stitch or pattern for the swatch, and then we knit up a little rectangle, that is (or should be) at least 4 inches by 4 inches. After wet blocking and letting our swatch dry completely, we can measure how many stitches and rows comprise an inch in our knitting, and hopefully, our gauge is the same or pretty close to that listed in our pattern.

Let’s say you measured your blocked swatch and the number of stitches and rows per inch that you’re knitting at isn’t the same as what’s listed in your pattern. That’s referred to as “not getting gauge.” You can try switching up your technique or switch to a smaller/larger needle and swatch again to help you get gauge. Particularly for knitting garments like sweater vests, getting gauge will make the difference in your finished project fitting or not. For knitting intarsia colorwork, getting gauge also helps ensure the design you’re working hard to knit into your project looks correct (not squished or stretched).

Knitting stitches aren’t square, and for intarsia, that’s a big deal.

You may remember this from school geometry: the difference between a square and a rectangle is the fact that squares have an equal width and height measurement, whereas rectangles have a different width and height. Despite the charts we work from regularly featuring graphs with squares to indicate each knitting stitch, knitting stitches aren’t actually square. They don’t have an equal width and height.

What is aspect ratio & how does it impact my knitting?

An aspect ratio is a proportional relationship between a shape’s width and height. Most often in daily life, you’ll hear the term aspect ratio referring to the size of the image on your TV, phone or movie screen, describing just how rectangular the image is. Is it a tall and thin rectangle? Is it short and wide? Square images have a 1:1 aspect ratio because they are as wide as they are tall. A tall and thin rectangle might be 1:10, and a short and wide one could have a 10:1 aspect ratio.

On average knitting stitches clock in a 5:4 aspect ratio, meaning they are slightly wider than they are tall. Stitches knit with intarsia colorwork tend to have an even more rectangular aspect ratio. (Why? Because there’s tension happening horizontally in each row at color changes.) In the example of the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest, the gauge is 19 sts and 28 rows over 4 inches. To calculate the aspect ratio of our stitches based on this gauge, we simply divide 19 sts by 28 rows (width divided by height) to get ~0.678.

Again pardoning the school math, we need to convert this into a fraction before reducing it to get our aspect ratio. 0.678 = 678/1000, which equals about 6.5/10 or 3.25/5 with rounding. The short explanation for what to do next to get your aspect ratio is simply to flip the numerator and denominator, the top and bottom numbers, and you’re in business with a 5:3.25 aspect ratio. For whatever reason, colons (:) are used when aspect ratios are discussed rather than slashes (/).

The long, mathy explanation for why you can simply flip your numerator and denominator isn’t going to interest everyone, so I am saving it for another video & blog post combo for the die hards who want to understand why this works.

For people whose brains have shut down because they are just not here for the numbers that’s ok. This concept is another way to help explain why gauge matters, and aspect ratio comes in to play especially when it comes to intarsia.

Graph Paper vs. Knitting Paper & its impact on intarsia designs

Everyday graph paper, the paper many folks will have on hand or first reach for (particularly when drawing up their first intarsia knitting design!) is square. Often, charted patterns we find in knitting publications/books feature graphs with square cells. So if we grab a generic pixel art drawing app or standard piece of notebook graph paper to draw up our first intarsia design, the picture we are drawing might be accurate to that app or piece of paper, but when knit up at an aspect ratio that is not the same 1:1 as the chart we’re working from, our finished intarsia sweater looks a bit… squished.

I’ve heard people say that they just don’t like how their finished intarsia knits up. Or worse, that they think all intarsia looks kind of wonky. When an intarsia project looks off, it often makes me wonder about this aspect ratio concept.

Looking at the chart for the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest chart and reference image is a great example, especially because they’re side by side in Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Official Knitting Guide to Halloween Town and Christmas Town. The chart used in the book features graph paper with a 1:1 aspect ratio. I designed the pattern with aspect ratio in mind, but for printing they used a 1:1 chart, which isn’t uncommon. As you can see, Spiral Hill looks sort of tall and oddly proportioned in the chart compared to hill in the movie. That’s because the chart knits up at a 5:3.25 aspect ratio but the chart depicts a 1:1 aspect ratio.

Please please reach out in the comments if I can help clarify this concept. I think it’s an important one to help better understand intarsia.

Another way to think of it in terms of resizing images on the computer

Here’s another example to help explain aspect ratio. If you’ve ever resized an image on the computer, you’ll know that it’s easy to accidentally make it look a bit off. If you grab one side of the image to resize it, you can easily make an image look squashed or stretched. If you grab the image by the corner, you’re scaling it, which changes the width and height of the image at the same rate. Rather than making the image just taller or just wider, scaling makes the image get proportionally wider and taller, preserving the aspect ratio.

Video Lesson

As announced last month, I have a new intarsia pattern available called the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest, inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas’ iconic landmark. You can find the vest pattern in the new book Disney Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Official Knitting Guide to Halloween Town and Christmas Town. To celebrate this release, and help teach knitters more about intarsia colorwork, we are doing a knit along (KAL) from October 1-29. Read on for all of the knit along details.

About the Spiral Hill Sweater Vest

Recreate the Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas’s iconic landmark in garment form! Knit flat from the bottom up in two panels with armhole shaping and then seamed together with mattress stitch, this vest uses intarsia colorwork and an intentional combination of stockinette and garter stitch to set the scene. Once the pieces are joined, stitches are picked up around the armholes and neckline and topped with ribbing. Don’t wait for the next full moon to cast on!

from the official Nightmare Before Christmas knitting book

About the knit along!

For convenience’s sake and to better loop in the YouTube community, I’ve made this little intro to the knit along, which runs October 1-29. The video covers more about the pattern & KAL, and it shows what it looks like on my body in a size 3 with the recommended 2″ of positive ease.

You can find the Nightmare Before Christmas knitting book from several retailers, including Amazon.

Here is the Intarsia Flower Pillow pattern if you’d like to knit it to follow along with the educational content of the KAL.

There will be a prize pack raffle for knit along participants. Throughout the knit along, you will be able to enter the giveaway here on the blog (see this recent giveaway example for what the format will be like). Prizes include stitch balm from Scented Stitches, notions from Twice Sheared Sheep, and a $100 gift certificate from Brooklyn Tweed.

Pattern Information / Yarn Quantities Needed

The pattern is exclusively available in the Nightmare Before Christmas knitting book.

SIZES 1(2, 3, 4, 5)[6, 7, 8, 9]{10, 11}

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS chest circumference: 36.25 (39.5, 42, 44.5, 47) [50.5, 53, 55.5, 59]{61.5, 64.74}” / 92 (100.5, 106.5, 113, 119.5) [128.5, 134.5, 141, 150] {156, 164.5} cm

YARN Worsted weight yarn, shown in Brooklyn Tweed Imbue (5-ply; 100% American merino wool; 104 yd. / 95 m per 50g hank)

COLORWAYS
Main Color (MC): Carbon, 5 (5, 5, 6, 7)[7, 7, 8, 8,]{8, 9} hanks
Contrast Color 1 (CC1): Ash, 1(1, 1, 1, 1)[1, 1, 1, 1]{2, 2} hanks
Contrast Color 2 (CC2): Crepe, 1 hank (all sizes)

NEEDLES
US 5 (3.75 mm), 16-32″ circular needles & an optional set of 5 DPNs
US 6 (4 mm), 16-32″ circular needle or size needed to obtain gauge

NOTIONS stitch markers waste yarn tapestry needle

GAUGE 19 sts and 28 rows = 4 in/10cm in stockinette stitch worked flat on larger needle, with measurements taken after blocking.

If you have any questions, email me or reach out in the comments section. This should be a fun knit along! :)

For this month’s review and giveaway, we’re taking a look at two new yarns from Manos del Uruguay that can best be described as sisters. Why sisters? Marla and Sami are two different yarns spun from the same fiber at the same weight, and their color palettes are designed to coordinate with each other.

For the purposes of this review, I swatched Marla in Nube (light blues, greys and whites) and Sami in Natural side by side in knitting and crochet. Comparing the two yarns, the primary difference is that Sami is dyed after plying, while Marla is made from 2 strands of lighter-weight yarn that have been dyed separately and then plied together.

Marla creates a naturally marled fabric when knit, with a unique color distribution. The Marla pictured is a yarn that used less contrasting colors, but other yarns from this line have a more high-contrast tweed look when knit, according to the website.

Sami, on the other hand, features nice hand-dyed colors that are designed to coordinate with Marla’s unique palette. I selected Natural for this review as the variation in the Nube colorway reminded me of the sky and the Natural, of course, of clouds.

THE YARN: Manos del Uruguay Sami & Marla

Where to find: Sami / Marla (additional stockists are listed on the pages linked)
Colorways pictured: Natural / Nube
Skein details: twisted hank / 273 yds/250 m / 100g // 100% Superwash Merino Wool
Knitting needles: US 4-6 / 3.5-4mm // 20-23 stitches = 4 inches (10 cm)
Crochet hook: US E / 3.5 mm // approx. 20 sc = 4 inches (10 cm) Crochet hook sizes not listed on label. This is what I swatched based on the needle size listed.
Cons: Depending on where I was in the skein, I feel like the Sami was just a little bit thinner than the Marla, but…
Pros:  …they knit up together beautifully. So much so I even knit a third swatch using intarsia colorwork to see how this yarn would behave with the technique. Why? I already have a design idea that these gorgeous, contemporary colors would work well for.
Pattern Ideas: Besides the one that’s in the imagination/swatch phase, this yarn is begging to become a set of cute accessories or a sweater. I love it when yarn companies make complimentary lines of yarn like these – it makes for awesome design possibilities with color.

The Giveaway

Enter to win a skein of each yarn in each color pictured (2 skeins total). Giveaway is open to U.S. only. Enter in the box provided below or here.

If you’re a yarn or yarn industry company that might be a good fit for this series, please email me at heidi -at- handsoccupied -dot- com.