Knitting the Slanting Slipover with Bio-Wool Yarn

This week’s blog post is about my experiences with the Slanting Slipover designed by Anne Ventzel, and Bio-Wool yarn by Rosarios4.

ANNE VENTZEL, AND HER DESIGNS

Anne Ventzel is a Danish designer based in Copenhagen, with about 20 years of experience in the Danish fashion industry. I first came across her works on social media in 2020, and stayed a while. Apart from the Scandinavian vibe, a few things stood out for sure:

• Hand drawn sketches – These not only express what the final knitwear will look like, but also flesh out a lot of details like yarn, stich pattern, design construction, additions and drape. This spoke volumes to me, and really touched my architect’s soul. Photos of the finished garment follow the sketches, and it is clear how similar the vision and the end product are. Also, her lettering is gorgeous!
• Varied stitch patterns – She sticks to basic colours, and explores stitch patterns to make her knitwear interesting. At first glance, any garment has a minimum of two visibly different yet complimentary stitch patterns. I was sure she would have incorporated quite a few construction techniques in each as well.
• Attention to details – She frequently showcases the finer details of her designs in her posts, including how the buttons are sewn, how stitches tilt, or how the colors should match. While she may not discuss this specifically, there is evident thought put into the presented photos.

I was definitely interested in her patterns, and then I began to hunt for some patterns on her website that I could work with. That’s where I saw a caveat – ‘Products made from the patterns may not be sold.’ Now, I completely understand designers who do not allow their patterns to be resold; this is obvious. But, for products made from the patterns not to be sold – this was new to me. As a store that sells hand-knit products, this entire exercise seemed counterproductive.

But since I had come this far, and really wanted to try atleast one of her designs, I decided to make something for myself. Disregarding the sunk time fallacy, I chose the Slanting Slipover pattern which would best suit my city’s mild winters and my personal style.

UNDERSTANDING THE SLANTING SLIPOVER

In Anne’s words, Slanting Slipover is a rustic vest with an elegant graphic pattern across the shoulders that continue down along the sides of the slipover and ends at the side slits at the hem. This pattern is seen in some of her other garments like the cozy cowl and the slip-on. It is available in 7 languages, and the one in English is available here: https://anneventzel.com/shop/4-english/103-slanting-slipover-english/

Some important features and requirements for size L in Version 1 are as follows:

• Dimensions – Chest: 105cm, Length: 57cm
• Recommended yarn – 350g Håndværksgarn by Hjelholts Uldspinderi (100% wool; 200m per 100gm hank)
• Recommended needles – The body is knit with 4.5mm circular needles, while the rib is knit with 4mm circular needles.
• Gauge to be achieved – 19 sts and 26 rds in a 10 x 10 cm square, using the larger needles.

Working from the top down makes it convenient to keep a check on the length of the slipover. The ribbing that begins at the collar goes down the shoulder, continues along the sides and ends as a part of the hem. To me, this is such a cool feature for a garment – it creates a stunning silhouette.

WHAT I USED TO KNIT THE SLANTING SLIPOVER

I was stalking Suma’s website as always for some yarns, and found a beautiful pink skein called Bio-wool. Now I am not a pink girl, but this one was dusty and muted, which I think will go with my other clothes and skin tone.

Rosarios4 manufactures Bio-wool, a medium worsted 100% organic wool yarn, in the EU. It is part of their eco-friendly collection, which shows the environmentally conscious attitude of the brand. Other colours are available here – https://thehappyhandsstore.com/product/bio-wool/. The brand’s website claims that the meterage is about 82m per 50gm ball, but the yarn label says it is 72m per 50gm ball. I checked with the brand directly, and they confirmed it is 82m per 50gm ball.

With the recommended 5.5mm needles, a gauge of 19sts and 32 rows in a 10 x 10cm square is achievable.

I was also able to knit to the correct dimensions of the slipover – Chest: 105cm, Length: 57cm, but then decided to extend the hem of the slipover to obtain a final length of 63cm.

I paired this yarn with Heartbeats Kid Silk in a blush pink color (KDS020). This is a 25gm ball with about 213m meterage, made out of 74% Kid Mohair and 26% Mulberry Silk. I used mohair only for the upper portion of the slipover to give a slight textural variation.

HOW I BEGAN

As always, I checked various versions of the slanting slipover made by other knitters, to see their variations. I think this is a must for every knitter for each project they undertake with someone else’s pattern. Ravelry here would be best to start with, while social media also does help to some extent. One should try to get a better picture of:

• what colour combinations worked,
• which yarn substituted well,
• where did the other knitters falter, what did they amend to make things better, and most importantly
• does the designer support any kind of queries and helps to clear the confusion. English is not everyone’s first language, and this can create communication issues while writing and comprehending.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE PATTERN

1. I was aware that some knitters were having issues with the ‘pattern’ part of the pattern. I felt equally confused when I started that part. It is tricky to match the actual row number with the pattern repeat number, and I thought it best to count ahead and write down the row numbers next to the chart. This reduced confusion significantly, though I had to keep a watchful eye on the numbers. In the image below, you can I have written down the corresponding row for each repeat. I have blackened out the pattern repeat chart for obvious reasons.

2. The twisted rib requires knitting and purling ‘through back loop’ for the slipover to look the way it does. In the beginning, this posed a challenge since it’s not my usual way of knitting or purling. However, after a couple of inches, I was cruising along happily. I wasn’t surprised though, as I had already read a comment by a fellow knitter who chose not to purl through the back loop at all. I personally feel these twisted rib stitches are tighter than the regular rib stitches, and hopefully will not stretch out like the regular rib.
3. Anne used Italian cast-on and cast-off methods to begin and end the garment. I think this is quite a clever technique for ribbed collars and hems because then
   1. The edge stitches appear as if they continue towards the inside, rather than forming a defined edge, and
   2. The edge is not rigid, and has some stretch to it. This is especially important for the collar, when one is trying to put their head through it in a hurry.

4. There seems to be some inconsistency in the hem measurements for size L. If the length between the collar and the front before hemming is 50cm, then a 9cm ribbed hem will make the garment 59cm long. However, the pattern notes states that the size L slipover will be 57cm long. Eventually this didn’t matter to me since I anyways went in for a much longer hem of about 14cm. I may reduce this in the future, but for now it works.
5. Shaping the shoulder by short rows was easy. Generally I struggle with short rows, but instructions here were crystal clear.
6. The twisted rib starting from the collar, then splitting apart towards the sides and then forming the hem is such a dramatic design strategy. I could see the slipover taking shape in every pattern repeat and that was so much fun to knit.
7. I also liked the way Anne designed the sleeve edges to have slipped stitches, it defines the sleeves in a clean, no-fuss manner.

   

   

8. A minor design aspect that I liked was the back being longer than the front, and I wanted to learn how to do this. It’s honestly such a simple technique of working a few more rows in the back before joining the front, I literally went d’oh!

NEXT FEW STEPS

I have to now sew in some of the ends, and then block the slipover. This will set the chest circumference and the drape correctly, and stretch the collar a bit.

MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE YARNS

1. Heartbeats Kid Silk knitted up really well, I didn’t observe any yarn splitting as such while working with basic metal needles. Working with this yarn in February and March was comfortable, but I am not sure if it would be a good idea to use it in summer.
2. Rosarios4 Bio-Wool also knitted up well, is quite soft to touch and the colour is oh so lovely! It is clearly a winter yarn; I don’t think summer is a good time to knit with it. Though the brand suggests using a needle size of 5.5mm, it works up perfectly with any other sized needles. I did find some discrepancies in weight though; my home scales consistently found each skein to weigh 46gm on an average. This obviously caused issues midway, with respect to quantity of yarn required, and I had to order more yarn. I did communicate this issue with the brand, and they compensated me with two gorgeous skeins of their Romario line, since the one I was using was not available any more. Rosarios4 provided excellent customer service, hearing and acknowledging my concerns, and swiftly sorting everything out.
3. Another issue I found was that almost each skein had a knot in the middle of it. Obviously, I cut out each knot, and rejoined the yarn to the project every single time. This bothered me a lot because this reduced meterage, and I ended up with more ends to weave. Towards the end, I just gave up. I just knitted with the knots, and in case it unravels any time, I will fix it at that time. I do have quite a few balls of Bio Love by the same brand, and I am hoping there are no ‘surprises’ there!

All in all, I love the way this slipover turned out! It looks warm, feels soft, and is a unique winter garment that I want to wear. The twisted rib design is so different from what I have seen before… I know I am going to observe quite a few double takes when I wear it.

Have you ever tried working with an Anne Zeventel pattern or with Rosarios4’s Biowool? What are your thoughts about her patterns and the yarn? Let’s talk in the comments!