Remember this? Ophicleide pattern finally here!

• Kamicha, November 3rd, 2008, in pattern

Hi you all! I’ve finally finished the Ophicleide pattern and now it is on sale for $6.50. You can get it via

Ravelry: Purchase Ophicleide pattern (pdf)

and probably later via Payloadz, too, but I have to inspect this option a bit further…

Note: you don’t need Ravelry account to buy this pattern, but PayPal is the only payment option. That link brings you directly to Ravelry shopping basket in PayPal - with Ophicleide in your basket.

There are six sizes, for bust sizes 87 to 120 cm. The pattern has also two sleeve options: instructions for the original short pouf sleeve and then a 3/4 length variation.

You need DK weight yarn, about 750 yards for bust sizes 87-104 cm, 850 yards for bust sizes 113-120 cm for short sleeved cardigan. Add about 100 yards for longer sleeves. Yarn in original is Rowan Wool Cotton (#964 Still), I used 6 balls for short sleeved 104 cm bust sized cardigan. Needles: 4 mm 80 cm circular needle for the body, 4 mm DPN for i-cords or size to obtain gauge. 6 metallic hooks and loops for front fastening. Blunt point (tapestry) needle for finishing work. Some leftover yarn for temporary cast on. And that’s it.

The stitch pattern of this cardigan utilizes stretched stitches. The herringbone part of the pattern uses stretched stitches crossed over regular ones. In the honeycomb pattern stretched stitches gather the garment gently to form those shapes. Neck opening utilizes short rows for subtle shaping, you can find great instructions of short row technique from Knitty. Neck opening and sleeves are finished with i-cord bordering - and you can find great tutorial from Shelly’s blog. And that’s about it about special techniques needed with this pattern (well, you could check out some temporary cast on methods too, if you are not familiar with them yet).

A nice fact to know before you decide to start is that finishing job (read sewing) is pretty much minimized in this pattern: you just attach short sections of i-cord border to the yoke area of the front pieces, attach few loops and hooks to thet border and probably finish the sleeve-underarm area and i-cord ends of the sleeves with few sewn stitches.

Stefanie (Ravelry link) and Larisa (Ravelry link) kindly test knitted Ophicleide for me - and now it is right time to tell how thankful I am. Girls, if you hear me - without you this project would never happened and you enthusiasm really carried me on. Thank you, thousand times!

For some reason making a commercial pattern has been enormous step for me. Knitting has been my hobby for - what!!! - almost 30 years and I’ve never actually thought it to be a way to make a living. But then came those big changes in my professional life and I dropped out from career path to study some arts and stuff. I still don’t see knitting as a profession - and I probably won’t make fortunes with my patterns, but as a part time freelancer and full time student I will be thankful for every small income source I’m able to establish. I was also very critical about the quality of the pattern - and it is still hard to let it go, because I know that it is not perfect. I really hope that it satisfies all of you who are willing to pay for it and you have really good time knitting!

I also listened to some feedback about my previous patterns. So this pattern is not as picture heavy as it’s predecessors were - and if you don’t want to print those ink consuming images they are laid out conveniently on one page, just don’t print out the whole document. Chart quality is poor on screen, but should be ok when you print the pattern out.

But let’s take a look to previously unseen details of Ophicleide. I have couple of images of semi-finished cardigan with new sleeve length. You can also see how the stitch pattern looks with yarn that does not have as good stitch definition as the original one.

Yarn in these pictures is Sandnes Garn Alpakka, and it works pretty well for this pattern.

Stephanie made her version from Rowan Wool Cotton, too, Larisa tested Rowan RYC Cashsoft DK. And look at these!