CITY LIMITS by Tanis Lavallee

I’ve wanted to try the Tanis Fiber Arts Purewash Wool for quite a while...so when I saw the City Limits design by Tanis Lavallee, well, I decided that the time was right!

The fingering craze is starting to wear on me, I have to tell you. I love fine yarns, fine gauge knitting, but it takes forever to finish a garment, doesn’t it??? So this sweater, designed for Worsted weight yarn....but Tanis knit her sweater using two strands of her Purelife Fingering AND added a bonus strand of mohair. 

When contemplating two strands of fingering...oh my, the possibilities! Strand two shades together for an all over marl. Use a fade of 5 skeins and alternate them in a striped marl! Use mohair, or don’t! 

The TFA “Spicy Fade” with Metropolis Mohair
Spicy Fade: Retro, Mimosa, Paisley, Roulette, Vamp

Tanis previews her shop updates...and when I saw the Spicy Fade that was a billed as a representation of her Marled Metropolis  ..... a version of her Metropolis design which she knit, marling her collection of leftovers....I LOVED THIS! It’s so bright ... so far out of my usual colour zone .... that I felt it was a perfect distraction for Lockdown Knitting. I was on the TFA web site armed with my credit card, ready to jump on a Spicy Fade....and was victorious in the pop up shop event, along with the extra skein I might need for my size of the City Limits design, and a couple of skeins of Mohair in Metropolis (I wanted to keep all my options open).

Once the yarn had arrived and was wound, a swatch was required. This might be the smallest swatch I have ever knit for a project....and look, one half of it with the mohair, the other not. I really love how the colours work together..and prefer it without the mohair. The mohair is lovely, but it mutes the colours...not what I was after.

It’s always a good idea to look at a colourwork swatch in black and white, monotones....to see how the shades play together.

My swatch confirmed that....with mohair, the colours melded into each other and I quite liked that effect Without mohair, the colours jump out and this was exactly what I was looking for! So NO MOHAIR for my City Limits!

City Limits is a top down design...you cast on, place markers to designate the front back and sleeve stitches. I knit the 48” size...and immediately after cast on, you increase on the stitches for the front and the back “pieces”. I found this a bit odd...why not just cast on the number of required stitches?

The raglan shaping was straightforward....and I really looked forward to changing up the yarn shade combination every 14 rows! (I had decided that 24” was my preferred length, and the size/row chart provided in the pattern helped me decide on how many rows of each shade to us.)

Body shaping - The pattern does give instructions for waist shaping. While I don’t need serious waist shaping...I learned a little trick while doing the Amy Herzog sweater KAL that Rowan did a few years ago....well, I actually didn’t knit the sweater, I followed along and did all the worksheets, etc. Amy suggested that sometimes our front size and our back size are different....and maybe it would be better to put shaping in the back piece only. Lightbulb moment! 

I tried this out when I knit Amy’s Thursford design in Rowan Original Denim.  The back has two dart lines of decreases and eliminates extra fabric in the back. I love this design and am contemplating knitting it again!

So, I applied this to the back of City Limits and decreased 3 times on the edge of the back piece, right up beside the reverse stocking stitch seam...then increased back. It does make the back fit better I think.

As I got to the marl of the Roulette and Vamp....the sweater took a dark turn and I wasn’t happy. I didn’t like that the Vamp was a pretty solid shade...so I did the right thing and ripped it back....and I left it alone while I finished the sleeves. I went right from Roulette to Fig, the extra skein that I’d ordered, and I really liked it.

I kept with the 14 row sections and then added a rib on the sleeve....it’s ever so slightly short....I prefer to call it “bracelet length”. 

Since I’d used rib on the sleeve, and knew that rib was going to be on the bottom, I decided then and there that rib needed to be added to the neckline. After I picked up stitches....it was important to ensure that the 2k2p rib lined up with the two purl stitches on the raglan line....I think I had to do a decrease here and there to make it line up....but the attention to this detail was worth it.

Once the sleeves were done...the weigh scales came out and some serious thought was applied. I was convinced that I could finish without using Vamp or another skein of for that matter, so bravely on I went and finished the body. It may be ever so slightly shorter than would be perfect for me (it’s hard to do that front belt tuck)

 I’ve been wearing it quite a bit, and I LOVE IT!

I seem to be doubling up yarns a lot this year.... 

First was the 002 Sweater by Martin Storey!

I knit it with strands of Rowan Island Blend and Kidsilk Haze!

Then I pulled out of deep stash, my half-finished vintage

Earth Stripe Wrap, a classic Kaffe Fassett design which

Uses two strands of Rowan Kidsilk Haze throughout! 

Look at that fringe!

I loved this so much I made a hat to match!

Then came my Love Note Sweater by Tin Can Knits! 

I did this using Koigu KPPM and Kidsilk Haze together!

And now City Limits! (Using two strands of Tanis Fiber Arts Purewash Fingering held together and swapping out shades to create a marl). 

Marls are all the rage right now....aren’t they? It’s funny that knitting trends come and go. There is a saying in fashion, that if you wore it the first time around, you probably shouldn’t be wearing it now. Does this apply to knitting? I don’t think so! 

I’ve had my eye on a marled project for quite a while and the success of City Limits has given me the kick in the you know what to get my stash together and cast on for......oops, I’m keeping this under my hat for now ;)

Until next time, Happy Knitting!

Anne x

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