BT | Zenith

Yesterday was launch day at Brooklyn Tweed. Launch day is always very exciting but let's face it - it is all the more exciting because we're talking about the fall collection and fall is to knitters what christmas is to children. Whenever we work on a Brooklyn Tweed collection, we are given themes and mood boards ahead of time of our design team meeting. For fall, our mandate was to create a collection inspired by fishermen's sweaters.

Jared, who is easily the best boss I've ever had, isn't particularly strict with us (the team consists of Jared, Michele, Julie and I). While we may be given a certain departure point as a guide, we are free to interpret our theme as we fit and to remain true to our own aesthetics. With that in mind, I began to work on my concepts. As usual, I began by sketching overall shapes - I occasionally begin with a stitch pattern, but rarely. I am a seamstress at heart and usually shop for fabric after choosing the kind of garment I'll make next.

It had been a while since I had designed a circular yoke. They're a favourite of mine as they allow for quite an oversized fit while remaining tidy around the shoulders. The sample shown above has 10 1/2" of positive ease on the model but if less ease is desired, choose to knit a smaller size in relation to your own bust measurement. Zenith's finished circumference at bust  is 36½ (40, 43½, 47, 50¾, 54¼)”, but it should be noted that the yoke chart is longer for the larger sizes in order to keep the ratio correct.

In closing, I'd like to add a big shout out to Wannietta for knitting the sample. Honestly, she has knit so many of my samples over the years - the first was Shimmer Aran, way back in 2003 - that she deserves her own blog post. I promise it won't take two years