My current knitting project is a sweater based on some motifs I like from local Hopi pottery. I'm adapting a top down set in sleeve "recipe" from Ann Budd's
The Knitter’s Handy Book of Top-Down Sweaters.
March 10, 2025
Time to get thinking about another sweater design. I'm still in the early design stages, but I know I want to do a pottery inspired sweater in polychrome (white, black, terracotta) colors. I thought about doing one based on ancient greek amphorae, but there's already a pattern for a cardigan on Ravelry for one of those and I don't know that I'm up for heavy all over colorwork at the moment. I also want to focus more on what is local to me in New Mexico. I've done a few studies of motifs I find interesting and have also found that there is a lot of emphasis on negative space in my favorite Hopi pottery designs. The contrast of thick and thin lines, empty space and decoration, and curved and straight lines all work together to give that distinctive feel. The designs are symmetrical and precice, but not "stable" in the sense that there is a lot of compositional tension that you don't find in other pottery.
With that in mind, I've come up with this general design, to be made in my favorite yarn base, a 80% Superwash Highland Wool, 20% Nylon sock yarn, KnitPicks Hawthorn. I like this so much better than Merino for the smooth, crisp texture, but it does only come in varigated colors instead of the rich black and warm terracotta that I need, so I'll have to order bare skeins and try my hand at hand dyeing. I could use a different yarn base I guess, but no one has that terracotta in a superwash nylon blend (i like to machine wash) so I'd have to dye that anyway. I'm not really going to be trying for any effects, but the design will suit a little natural tonal variation if that's what I get.
I'll probably leave the shoulder of the sleeve a solid color since short rows stress me out, but otherwise this should be a good working design. It will be 7 sts/in with some positive ease and ribbing up the sides for waist shaping. I think a mockneck would mirror the shape of the pot rims in a fun way, but I'm not sure how I feel about wearability. I've already come up with a pattern for the bottom feather colorwork, but still need to make a swatch of it to see if I like it.