Using Dropped Stitches to Make Lace -- Catskills Cardi

I love stitch patterns that use "dropped" stitches to make motifs. With 'dropped stitches', you knit like normal until a point where you take the stitch off the needle (as if you had made a mistake 😱) and let it run down like bad pantyhose.

The most famous use of drop stitiches is in Kate Gilbert's Clapotis, which has over 23,000 projects on Ravelry -- wow!

See WiscJennAnn's version here

Here are other drop stitch knits that have caught my eye:

See Huwerknits' version of Forest Weave here

Buy the pattern SC.1 from Shibui Knits here

No pattern (Anthropologie), can someone make one, pretty please?

Naturally, I was delighted when Sheila Toy Stromberg put her Catskills Cardi up for test knitting... look at those big 'drops'!

Catskills Cardi

This is not a full cardigan in the sense that it closes in the front. It is meant to be more of a long shrug that hangs at your sides. In my mind's eye, it was going to be the perfect cover up for a little black dress. Agreed?

For size small I used 484 yds of sport weight yarn. I love patterns with an intermediate yardage requirement! This is for that part of your stash that you are uncertain what to do with... it's too big for an accessory, too small for a full-size top. I decided to use Filatura di Crosa's Gioiello from some major loot that my wonderful mother-in-law brought me from Switzerland.  (Merci, Yvette!)

The yarn is gorgeous and filled with the kind of gold bling I crave in my life. BUT IT CONTAINS MOHAIR. If you choose mohair for any drop stitch motif, you will have to spend more time getting those stitches to drop down. They will stick and need to be pulled pretty strongly to let go. I recommend having a pair of scissors to snip the matted hairs instead of tearing at them. That just  stretches neighboring stitches in the row and makes it wonky.

Now, because the drop stitches aren't created until the very end of knitting, you will think you are making a miniature sweater! Don't worry, those drops will add a lot of width and ease. It is helpful to use blocking wires to really stretch it out even more. See my blog post on blocking this cardi.

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Left: Undropped                                                                                                      Right: Dropped

I lengthened my cardi by 5 body repeats for a further length of 2.5 inches. The good news is that the drop stitch motif uses very little yarn, so extending the body only took 30 yards. It's that beautiful twisted cable edging that will surely eat up your yarn:

I changed the cabled motif from the original pattern. You are supposed to repeat the motif the stated number of times, but I thought it would be nice to close the cable to a point.

This pattern has a lot of nice little finishing details for the ribbed edge of the sleeve and neckline. They are knitted right into the motif so that there is virtually no sewing needed. The only time you sew is using a 6-stitch kitchener and a little bit of tacking down with loose ends. Great!

However, this is definitely an advanced intermediate pattern, and I recommend that you read her "timeline schematic" to understand how the piece is constructed before you begin.

No, I didn't shoot some of these photos on a vacation at some fabulous Mediterranean oasis. Oddly, these shots were in the dead of a winter, in a ski town, no less! We spent a weekend in Sutton, Quebec and stayed in a mansion that has an indoor pool iheated to 30 degrees C: Le Domain Tomali-Maniatyn. Along with some cross-country skiing, we also visited one of my favorite LYS's, Mont Tricot! What a great name for a yarn store in a ski town, right? The owner Lucinda is a blast, and she carries fabulous yarns.

Here is her display of Rowan Truesilk (100% mulberry silk), spilling luxuriously out of a jewelry box.

I couldn't resist posing in front of her rows of Pure Wool Worsted either.

Want to read about the sweater I am wearing?  Click here.

If you are ever nearby (she is close to the US border, too!), do visit. In honor of our wonderful visit to Sutton and it being closer than the Catskills of my home state New York, I've re-named my cardigan!

See my Monts Sutton Cardi on Ravelry

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