Bubble Pullover: Pattern Notes

We finally got one of those SoCal mornings that was truly chilly - well, as chilly as a Los Angeles summer morning can be - so I decided that it was a good time to pull out the Bubble Pullover and write up some pattern notes. It's a great knit, and it would be a shame if it got lost in the shuffle of pregnancy and life in general. Plus, I find that once again several weeks have rolled by without a post, and considering how upside down things are about to become, it's now or in many months hence for the blog. Have you looked over at that baby counter? I have seven weeks to go. And that's if he stays in until 40 weeks (please kid, stay in there 40 weeks!) God, it feels like I have been pregnant forever and yet simultaneously time has flown. Completely amazing.

Enjoying a tender moment with my basketball.

Anyhoo, back to the Bubble Pullover. At the moment I look somewhere between totally ridiculous and kind of cute wearing it - it basically creates a nice clear target on my baby belly and boobs. But I made my friend Laura try it on when she was out here last weekend and on a body that is similar to mine normally it works really well. By the time that I'm wearing it I think that enough of the tummy will be gone that it will be a favorite on colder days. It's wonderfully comfy and cozy when worn.

Bubble Pullover
Knitting Nature
designed by Norah Gaughan
Knit with 5.75 skeins (1254 yards total) of Misty International Hand Dyed Worsted (100% alpaca) in colorway EZ14 "Spring Touch"
on size US6 (4.0 mm) and US7 (4.5 mm) Addi Turbo circulars.
Gauge: ? sts and ? rows per inch over stockinette stitch. (I'll fill this in later if I remember!)
Size: 38" at bust when blocked.

From the back -- closer to
how it will look when I am
flat-chested and flat-bellied again.The Pattern: I've been following Norah Gaughan's work for over a decade now - she's one of my all-time favorite designers - yet somehow I have never gotten around to making one of her patterns until now. There was a time when I thought I would systematically go through some of my favorite people and do a few designs from each of their collections, but now I know better. Nothing systematic is ever going to happen in that department - I'm just too fickle to impose that kind of structure on my fun time. I've made one design by Veronik Avery (three times), one by Teva Durham, one by Sarah Hatton, one by Annie Modesitt, and I'm working on an EZ pattern. So really, if I just get around to a Marie Wallin design someday I will have at least one of each - that's something, right?

I've always thought that completing a few things by those women would be a sort of Tour of the Masters, and it really has been. Norah Gaughan, as most know, is a master of unique construction, and as an on again off again designer myself, I've found it very interesting to follow her footsteps through a pattern - either by just reading through the instructions or by actually knitting in this case. She has a real talent for doing something in a unique way and yet simplifying and streamlining at the same time, so that you can do something new and wonderful without it being a huge pain in the ass. It makes her edgy designs accessible to knitters from a wide range of skill levels, which is a very nice plus. Except for a few different techniques (like picking up stitches using the working yarn and the tail end of your cast-on alternately - so clever) most of what goes on in the Bubble Pullover is pretty straightforward and should be familiar to an advanced beginner.

Dude. If you can't hit this you couldn't
hit the broad side of a barn!You basically start with a single pentagon and build from there, connecting pentagon after pentagon until you have eight pentagons total which are connected into a tube. From there you simply pick up and knit the bottom ribbing down from one side of the pentagon tube and the collar from the other end of the tube. Add fabulous buttons (I got mine at Imagiknit when hanging out and podcasting with Nicole of Stash and Burn), and voila, you have a great sweater. I thought that I would be bored by the repetition of the pentagons, but watching them come together is pretty addictive, so it wasn't a problem. I knit the bulk of this sweater in Italy, so it is infused with our wonderfully romantic honeymoon (babymoon?) as well, which makes it extra-special.

Modifications: I re-gauged this baby to work with the wonderful Misti Alpaca yarn that I bought for it, but other than that I didn't make any modifications that spring to mind. Re-gauging is much easier than you would imagine if you understand the construction. I actually found it easier to deal with than most patterns for re-gauging. (Don't ask me what I did, though - I didn't write down the numbers and I don't remember! There was a lot of winging it involved.)

Showing is no longer a concern.Techniques: This list is going to sound more difficult to a beginner than it is. If you don't know how to do everything already, don't let that stop you - just get a book or look on-line and teach yourself the things you don't know yet. They should come to you and be a good foundation for any sweater: knitting in the round, picking up stitches, working on double-pointed needles, making button holes with yarnovers (explained in pattern) and my new favorite picking up stitches alternating the tail from a cast-on edge and the working yarn. This last technique is one that I haven't seen before, but it is really useful and pleasing. It won't be hard to get down once you have yarn in hand and just try it. This is one of those techniques like Annie Modesitt's slipped stitch edging that I will definitely file away for future use.

Impressions of Misti International's Hand Dyed Worsted:
I know that you must think that I haven't met a yarn I didn't like ever because I am always raving about my project yarns. The reason is that for the most part I know how to pick a yarn that I like without actually knitting it first. I've met many yarns that I loathed, but most of those were encountered early on in my knitting life, well before I worked at a yarn shop or cranked out the volume of knitting that I have in the last few years. Rest assured that when I go on and on about a yarn it is genuine and not without discernment. Not all of the yarns I love are easy yarns - I adore linen, which is hard on the hands in its pure form, and I have happily knit with yarns that others would find splitty, slippery, or difficult. If that is the case, I will tell you the whole story here.

Folded to show off the gorgeous buttons; Bubblicious laid flat.

With that introduction, Hand Dyed Worsted is not only a wonderful yarn, it is an easy yarn. Personally, the alpaca is up there with the merino sheep for beautiful fiber. The two are tied for my favorite. I know that not all knitters feel this way about alpaca, but if you aren't allergic to it and want to go out on a limb and give it a try, this is a good yarn to choose. Hand Dyed Worsted is one if the softest Alpaca yarns I've used yet. Touch it to your cheek (your hands aren't as sensitive and won't pick up any underlying itchiness) and see if it passes the comfort test. You may be surprised. The colors of this yarn are beautiful, and come in semi-solid varieagateds - I could own several colorways if I weren't already over-run with stash. It is a pricey yarn, but not as pricey as it seems at first glance, because it is sold in 100 gram skeins, so you get twice as much yarn as you would in an average skein of yarn. The sad news is that it is discontinued, so like a fine wine it will be hard to find in the future. It is recently discontinued, however, so your chances of picking some up are still pretty good. It's well worth a little hunt, and maybe if enough of us hunt Misti will consider bringing it back. If not, check out their offerings. Misti is a great company and I really enjoy all of their alpacas.

Possible substitute yarns:
A ton. See what other people have used - Ravel it! Some of my favorites: Olga's in Malabrigo, Jatta's in Araucania (with handmade buttons) and Knittingdropout's in Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran.