Paul Klee inspired

March 25, 2023

 



I've finished my Paul Klee sweater and I love it to bits. When I finish a sweater I seem to wear it daily for a week until it doesn't feel "new" anymore and I can finally switch it out and put it in regular rotation. But this one, I'm not sure, I might be wearing it daily for a month I love it so much. This is knit top down and is very easy stranded colorwork using just two colors at a time. If you are new to stranded colorwork this would be a good one to practice on. I know several of you want to make this and you wondered about how I came about my color choices and I'm happy to share my process with you.

I am unsure of color and love assistance and assurance when picking out color for clothing. So first I looked through the Ravelry project pages (over 400 projects) to see what other knitters had come up with. I decided that there was no wrong way to go. Brights looked good and so did pastels. Neutrals and tonals too, in fact there was nothing I didn't like. So next I went to the artist himself and studied Paul Klee's paintings, especially his color grids, which this sweater is based on. These two quick studies emboldened me to go with colors out of my comfort zone because my favorite sweaters were the ones with the more dazzling color choices, just as I would imagine Paul Klee would have chosen for himself. 

I already knew I was going to use Rowan Island Blend Fine, a blend of Falkland Island wool, alpaca and silk, in a gorgeous steel gray for the body. A great choice, the yarn is super soft and creates a lovely, even fabric.  Every color would go with my charcoal gray body, and choosing the yoke colors was next. My stash drawer had most of the colors I needed but this project called for 18 yoke colors, so I needed some help. You only need a tiny bit of each color and luckily Brooklyn Tweed sells Peerie in small inexpensive "discovery" mini skeins so I ordered some online. They arrived quickly and then I laid everything out. I chose my companion stripe colors first--the two colors that would sit next to each other in a stripe, trying to have enough contrast with each other, but also in the same color family when possible. When I was happy with my nine stripes, I put them into one of two groups: bright and less bright. None of my stripes were dull, but some stripes were definitely more bright than others. Next, I lined them up--bright, dull, bright, dull, etc. This entire process took less than a half hour. I did not go too crazy over it because as you'll see when you look through the projects, they are all gorgeous.

If you love this sweater I would encourage you to give it a try. Don't overthink the color choices because if you look through the projects, they are all different and all beautiful. As for the pattern, the designer did an excellent job and wrote a pattern that is easy to follow, but friends, it's a biggie at 23 pages, but don't let that scare you! You'll only print out the pages you need for your particular size. The designer did an excellent job detailing each size, which is lovely, but you will only be knitting your size so just print the pages that pertain to your size. And speaking of sizes, it comes in children's sizes up to adult 6XL! I made a size in between the 2xs and xs. It's very easy to fiddle with the fit if that's something you need to do.

My Ravelry project page shares my exact yarn choices but the bulk of the colorwork was:
The body was made with Rowan Island Blend Fine
As an aside, Rowan is having a 50% off sale of their Wool Cotton, a light worsted weight yarn and lovely.


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20 Comments

  1. Thank you so much for sharing how you chose your colors. I can't start mine until I finish up some wips that are distracting me, but that will give me some time to gather my leftovers and see which direction I can go. It's such an exciting sweater!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it is an exciting sweater! Such a good description. And I know about those wips. You are good to be disciplined!

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  2. Wow absolutely gorgeous.
    I wanted to tell you I made the bottle cap matching game to take when I visit my 5 year old granddaughter. It will be so fun to play with her.

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    Replies
    1. That's fabulous! I'm so glad you told me. I know you will both love playing it!

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  3. Absolutely amazing. I can't believe this is not difficult. You wear it well.

    Carole

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  4. Another gorgeous sweater! I always like your choices for patterns, they fit my similar lifestyle. If you have any good tips for avoiding underarm holes in top down circular sweaters I wish you would share them, I hate having to sew up the underarm, it never looks good.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Yes, I do have a tip, I pick up an extra stitch between the cast on stitches and the stitch on the needles. I do this on both sides of the CO sts, so two extra stitches. When I knit the first round I knit that extra stitch together with the stitch next to it (not the picked up cast on st). Do that twice to get rid of both extra stitches. That will usually fix the hole. I hope this makes sense.

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  5. It came out great and you should be so proud. I am going to keep in mind for me.

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  6. Love the Klee jumper! Might have to investigate further …



    Janise

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Janise. You'll love looking at all the projects.

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  7. Definitely one of your best, just beautiful !! Could be made in many different color ways…..
    M

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Margie. Agree, I'm tempted to make it in all neutrals.

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  8. This is just stunning, Kristin. All your particular colors together look so pleasing. Although all are beautiful as you say, there are certain ones that are my favorites, so thank you for your tips on how to arrange to get the effect I want. I, too, hope to knit up all those WIPS by next September so I can take the plunge into Fair Isle Knitting. I’m a slow learner so maybe in two years I’ll be done:)). Chloe

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Oh I’m glad you looked through the projects. Some are just breathtaking. Such a simple pattern with an awesome effect.

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    2. It’s Kristen!

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  9. It turned out beautifully! Definitely inspiration for a future project.

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  10. Beautiful! I am just starting mine and wonder about color dominance on the yoke - I knit stranded colorwork w/one color in each hand. Does color dominance matter on this sweater? Did you hold Color A and Color B in the same position throughout as you changed colors? Thank you!!

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