Besides the Pink

Beside all the pretty dainty pink that seems to be showing up around here, I am also working on that plainest of plain things, a garter stitch sweater.  In Black.

It is the Icelandic Overblouse from Knit One Knit All.  This overblouse is plain.  Plain. Plain. Plain.  That it is garter stitch should tell all about the heart of it.  But, just like all of Elizabeth Zimmermann's garter stitch wonders, it is the construction of the thing that is interesting.  

It is the bottom edge I wanted to show you.  She has you knit 6 ridges and then knit short, then pick up along the edge and eventually knit across the end to arrive back at the beginning number of stitches. I'll point it out better after it is blocked.  It is such an interesting way of making a soft corner.  Unfussy.  It forms a very nice rounded bottom corner.  

 It bubbles up a little, as does the first part of the sweater, but I am pretty sure this is going to block out.  It occurred to me, as I knit the first, that what you have here is, more or less a construction like a heel turn.  Or rather part of one.

I knit part one exactly like the book. The second, I went my own way and knit it up like a heel turn.  It was a bit of an accident, since I didn't reread the book to be sure, but the sock impression stuck so clearly in my mind, that I was certain I didn't need to read the book again.  It works fine.  It is close enough in construction that no one but me (and now you) will know the difference between sides.