Projects
My 4 Letter Sweater
Dear Kay,
Really in a groove on my 4 Letter Sweater, the Degen design that gives us the opportunity to pick a four-letter word and broadcast it on the front of our person.
For the body, I went with our Atlas yarn in Whisper, a very pale lavender, with the four letters in a yarn I am not at liberty to discuss.
There are a bunch of technical and spiritual things I’m itching to discuss, but I’m going to focus on exactly one thing today.
The pattern calls for our four letters to be worked in intarsia. I immediately veered away from that idea toward my favorite party trick: duplicate stitch. (This links to a video from the extremely soothing Jen Arnall-Culliford showing how to do it. Five stars.)
Not gonna rag on intarsia—it’s having a moment, a well-deserved moment. But I’m not in the mood to do a sweater that requires at one stretch 15 bobbins of yarn. All respect for the intarsians out there. All respect.
Here’s what happened when I decided to go with duplicate stitch rather than intarsia.
Making a Blank Canvas
I needed to create a blank canvas onto which I would stitch my four letters.
I could have worked the front flat, as per the pattern, but I had other dreams, people. Other dreams.
I worked the body in the round, from hem up to the beginnings of the armholes. All knit, no purl. Zippyfast, and no side seaming to fool with.
After cranking this torso tube, I worked the rest of the front flat, creating the blank canvas onto which I would do my duplicate stitching. Here’s the view from the back of the sweater, just after I finished working the front—where the four letters were about to be stitched.
(I stored the back stitches on a Tulip interchangeable cable with those little stoppers: handy!)
Note that I steamed this piece to smooth out the stockinette in preparation for the duplicate stitch to come. The Mighty Redemptive Power of Blocking, once again.
I chopped up Degen’s alphabet charts to make my S U R E chart. (Love this wacky font.)
I basted a rectangle onto my canvas to give me landmarks as I stitched.
I threaded my yarn onto a tapestry needle, and got my counted-cross-stitch groove on.
At first, duplicate stitching looks pretty wonky, sort of alarming actually. Is this a terrible idea?
I knew from past experience that a quick steam iron moment is a magical transformer. Stitches settle, the warbles vanish, and what’s left is a slightly embossed set of letters.
A few nights of this fun, getting more SURE as I went.
Now I’m doing the dropped sleeves and collar. This is such a breeze of a design—if you love duplicate stitch, I mean!
What is that extremely fun yarn I’m using?
I don’t mean to be coy, but I can’t say. Please stay tuned; we are beside ourselves. We are SURE you’ll love what’s ahead.
Love,
Ann
PS: I’m making the fourth size, which is 12 skeins of Atlas in the main color, plus one skein of Mystery Yarn 3000.
WOW! I will add duplicate stitch to my list of skills to learn.
Oh, so pretty! I am deeply intrigued!
Damb, that looks great! You’re a wizard with duplicate stitching.
Loving the mystery yarn, too …
I’m just swatching for my color block (Atlas stash-busting) version mod, and, I also swatched my #BOAS2025 combo, which is just plain luscious. x
Nelllllll! Can’t wait to see your colorblock version. So fun.
Like this
I love it! Is the duplicate stitch yarn thicker than the sweater? Thanks.
Sandra
Hi Sandra! Yes, it adds a second stitch on top of the stitch in the fabric. So it’s twice as thick as a single stitch. It makes for a slightly embossed effect, different from intarsia where the fabric is totally flat. With intarsia, you’re working the letters as you knit, so the effect is a flat fabric, with the letters an integral part of the fabric. The pix show how duplicate stitch looks.
Duplicate stitch looks great. I like how it pops.
You might consider trying another project using intarsia. I followed Kaffe Fassett’s advice and “pulled from the tangle.” It was the most fun I’ve ever had knitting!
So glad you had fun with the king of intarsia. We have Field Guide No. 16: Painterly, with a collection of Kaffe designs that are a great intro to intarsia. Geometric motifs are the easiest way to get started, and the patterns in this Field Guide are so good. I actually love working intarsia, just not for this sweater!
I will definitely be making this! I love both plain (ie, tv or reading) knitting and duplicate stitch! Thanks for a fun morning article Ann.
It’s weirdly hypnotic, once you’re into your stitching.
Great fun! Sweater looks great! I like to break up the tedium of flat knitting with a colorful yarn or intarsia but this works…..Now that I’m finally training myself to like solid yarns, I see we have some gorgeous, tie-dyed yarns in our future! Hooray!
The ultimate in both/and!
That mystery yarn SURE is purty!
Love your sweater, love the background color, the mystery color on top of the background color, and the LARGE size of your letters! Your letters look puffy to me, in a good way. I was wondering how you did that. Being the Southern girl you are, are you going to put “NUF” on the back! love from your fellow Southerner in ATL
lol! I guess it would need to be N U F F.
Also considering N A A H for the back lol and answering difficult questions by turning my back and walking away. ; )
Another benefit to the duplicate stitch approach is that you could probably switch the current word to a new one down the road if you want!
Love it and the yarm combo is awesome!
Ann, your sweater is so cute with the mystery color! Is there a small video with how you do the duplicate stitch, I know the idea but would love to see it in action.
Hi Diane! Have a click on the “duplicate stitch” link up there in the post. The brilliant Jen Arnall-Culliford explains it in a video tutorial. She’s just the best, hope it’s helpful.
Good article. Good content. Good explanations. Good photos. Good fun.
This is the most beautiful sweater for SURE!!!! I love it so much! Your colors, and that mystery yarn!!! I cannot wait to hear more about that!!!! Stunning!
Doing this on a vest pattern would speed up the knitting process……
YOU SURE ARE GOOD AT DUPLICATE STITCH.
This is fabulous, and your joy in making is infectious in the best possible way. Thank you!
What a great idea!
I “sure” would be looking for a thrifted sweater on which to practice my duplicate stitch – not hand knitting one!
Use a swatch to practice on! I love how Arne & Carlos call swatching a playground. It’s so much fun playing with new techniques and stitch patterns.
Absolutely love this!
WHAT
So fun! Any thoughts about offering a kit?
I just spent a few evenings duplicate stitching the bottom of an almost-worn-out pair of slippers for my son. It’s a handy skill. Watching Jen’s video is very soothing, as is doing duplicate stitch. But I realized, I may never have watched anyone else do it before. #beforeyoutube
I’m waiting on pins and needles to find out more about that yarn! I also need to figure out my four letter word.
Oh yes, Atlas Whisper is one of my favs!! I knitted my Escalator Scarf in it and was enthralled. It deserves a sweater. I also need to remember that duplicate stitch is a thing – great reminder on both counts!
You weren’t in the mood to use 15 bobbins of yarn? Let me guess: Kermt stored your bobbins and you haven’t located all of them yet. (Which “Star Trek” series had the Intarsians?)
Just AMAZING!!
That sweater rose to the top of my queue as soon as I saw it on Degen at Rhinebeck! Duplicate stitch all the way.
Great idea to use duplicate stitch. I love intarsia, but don’t plan on learning it anytime soon. The color is so pretty and I can’t wait to see the mystery yarn!
Sure, Jan.