RE: Designer Knitting with Kitty Bartholomew

[TEMA]

I've been reading thru a knitting book by Kitty Bartholomew and found some really nice, easy sweaters. The only thing is - she doesn't seem to give the amount of yarn required for any of the sweaters... so my question is - how do you find out how much yarn to use?
Thanks,
TEMA

[Jan in CA]

Does she give you weight and yardage? You can always email her to find out how you're supposed to do it, too.
http://www.kittybartholomew.com/projects.htm

[TEMA]

Thanks, Jan...
I sent her an email...
The book doesn't give yardage or weight but she describes the yarn.
She is using 3 different yarns held together to make the sweater.
It is a blend of a bulky black boucle, a black mohair and a multi-colored novelty yarn. The gauge is 1.9 sts per inch/ 3 rows per inch.
TEMA

[Jan in CA]

What is the name of the pattern? It can be looked up on Ravelry and see what it suggests or what others used.

[TEMA]

What is the name of the pattern? It can be looked up on Ravelry and see what it suggests or what others used.

The pattern is called Black Multi-Tweed Cardigan - it's Project 3 in her book Designer Knitting with Kitty Bartholomew. It seems like a kind of sweater jacket but without buttons.
TEMA

[Jan in CA]

Huh. I didn't see it on Ravelry which doesn't happen often. Hopefully she'll get back to you.

[TEMA]

Her site got back to me, Jan. I got a form letter... no mention of the question I asked.... but I also posted the same question on Ravelry and was told that the book actually tells you something about it on P 140 so I had a look and I guess I can give a somewhat accurate account of how much yarn I will need.
I appreciate your help so much... for one thing, I got to go to her site and see what else she is into. I think she is an amazing lady... all the other stuff she does including home decorating, talks, books and then knitting on top of it....
TEMA

[ArtLady1981]

I've got this book right in front of me! OMG! I never noticed that there are no yardage numbers given ANYWHERE in the book, not even on page 140...which is just a description of the type of yarn...no yardages given whatsoever.

Predicting yardage requirements is tricky business. All she prolly knows is how much yarn she used for her model sweater, which if prolly the only one that exists on the planet!

But regardless...I think she should have given the yardage used for the model sweaters she is wearing in the book.

Now that I know this about the book, I regard this book as useless. Not everyone has an endless supply of yarn in a closet.

However, that said...if you look into other cardigan designs that use super-duper bulky yarn (1.9 st per inch)...and see what yardages are stated, you will come pretty close to how much you need.

I wish I had not purchased this book. I understand how frustrated you must feel.

[ArtLady1981]

OK, did some investigative work. Found a similar weight yarn at WEBS, and used that yarn as a guideline. Input the yarn into the Ravelry yarn search...found it...and then clicked onto the 742 projects that used the yarn (Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky is 2 st per inch)...and after landing on the next page, I typed "sweater" into the 742 projects search engine to further weed out scarfs and the like.

So, click here to view a man's pullover using the Blue Sky Alpacas Bulky. The guy used 565 yards.

Here is another sweater, a cardigan. The girl used 450 yards for the size small.

For YOUR CARDIGAN...if you are going to hold 3 yarns together to create the gauge...remember you will need about 600 yards PER TYPE of yarn.

Another similar gauge yarn is Cascade Yarns MAGNUM. Ravelry yarn search turns up 124 pages of projects, with 10 pages being sweaters. You could search those, too. You'll get a good feel for the yardage requirements for your sweater.

Hope this helps.

[Jan in CA]

Yikes. I don't know what this sweater looks like, but IMO that's way too much work for a sweater where there are probably several other similar ones that actually DO have yardage.