I just picked up the latest issue of Vogue Knitting (Winter 2012-13) and was delighted to see Radial featured in the Style section on page 14. The headline is Geometry: Experiments with shapes yield bold statement knits, and Shapes + Form gets a mention alongside the designs of Norah Gaughan, Kristin Ford for Shibui Knits, and Bergère de France. Exciting!

The Cookie Crumbs KAL group on Ravelry is also hosting a knitalong! Their members chose to knit the Rotation cardigan.

Rotation is a standard-fitting cardigan with asymmetrical fronts. The sizing notes give the chest measurement and suggest choosing a size with 0-4 inches of positive ease. For Rotation, which doesn’t close all the way down the front, you’ll get the most accurate fit by sizing by the cross-shoulder measurement.

I think proper shoulder fit is more important than chest, i.e. a little extra positive or negative ease in the chest is more forgiving but for proper drape the shoulders should hit at the right spot. In general, I would recommend that for all sweaters with set-in sleeves.

So much like I did for Conic, here are some photos of the Rotation cardigan on other people. The sample was knit in the 35″ size.

Rotation is pretty much perfect on me with 1″ of positive ease.

Kathy, who is 5’1″ (with heels on) and slim, should actually be wearing the 32.5″ size instead of the 35″ – see how the shoulders are too large?

Eileen is much taller than Kathy but is also slim. She might also choose to knit the smallest size.

With 5″ of negative ease in the sample, Gus might be more comfortable in the 37.5″ or even the 40″ sweater. A larger size would drape better in front.

The Rotation sample was knit in The Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering, a merino-cashmere-nylon blend fingering weight yarn. It’s got a lot more bounce than the Malabrigo Sock that Conic was knit in.

You can see all the photos of Rotation on flickr by clicking on the Rotation tag.

Veronica, Gus, and I have cast on for Conic, and we’ve been joined by other knitters in the Cookie A Socks and More group on Ravelry.

Conic is knit beginning with the back, which is knit top-down. After the back is finished, you pick up (and cast on) for the sleeves, which are then knit in the round to the cuff. Finally, you knit ribbing all the way around the body.

Here’s the start of my Conic in Socktopus Sokkusu Original.

This is what the finished back looks like.

Veronica has started her Conic in a brown silk and wool yarn.

Here’s Gus’s nifty cast-on photo (hooray Instagram!)  She is using some beautiful Wollmeise sock yarn that she got from her recent trip to Munich. Lucky girl got to make the pilgrimage to the actual Wollmeise shop!

After seeing Veronica, Gus, and I all working on Conic at knit night, Abigail has decided to join us too! She’s allergic to wool and most animal fibers and had a hard time finding an appropriate yarn that wouldn’t set her back a fortune. She swatched some Soie Naturelle from her stash which she hand dyed earlier. She’s still not sure about the color but figures if she doesn’t like it, she can overdye the finished garment. She is getting 5.5 stitches to the inch instead of the 6.5 called for in the pattern. For the back, she will go down a size, but we may need to do some arithmetic for the sleeves.

We’d love for you to join us and knit along on any of the sweaters from Shapes + Form here on the Ravelry group: Shapes + Form Knitalong!

Conic is one of the runaway hits of the Shapes + Form collection with over a thousand hearts on Ravelry. Local-to-me knitters Veronica, Gus and I have decided to do a little  Conic knit-along. I have some beautiful Socktopus Sokkusu in grey from the lovely Alice Yu. Gus picked up some gorgeous turquoise Wollmeise sock yarn while she was in Germany, and Veronica found some rich chocolate brown wool and silk yarn in her stash. The original sweater was knit in Malabrigo Sock, but any light fingering weight yarn with a soft hand and good drape is probably a great choice.

The sizing notes say to choose a size with positive ease using the waist measurement which may seem kind of odd to size a shrug based on the waist. The reason is that the arms and body are extremely forgiving with small incremental differences in the neck, arms, and body between the sizes. If the wrists of the sleeve are tight, it’s easy to modify the pattern to have fewer decreases in the sleeve for better fit. The larger difference comes in at the waist as the back gets wider, and I recommend some positive ease there for movement, but I like my sweaters pretty drapey. If you want a snugger fit, and depending on where your weight is distributed, you can get away with less ease than recommended.

Here is the Conic sample sweater, knit in the smallest size, on Eileen who has a 36 inch bust and 26 inch waist.

Here it is on me. I’m a lot shorter at 5’3″, have much broader shoulders than Eileen, but my waist is 27 inches and bust is 34 inches.

Here it is on Veronica. She is 5’5″ with a 30 inch waist and 37 inch bust.

I don’t have Kathy’s measurements, but she is 5’1″ and tiny!

And finally on Gus, who’s 5’4″ with a 40″ bust and 34″ waist.

Conic fits Eileen and Veronica well and has a little more ease on Kathy. By her measurements, Gus might have chosen to knit the next larger size, but the smaller size still works well on her. You can see more fit pictures of all the garments in my Flickr collection.

I’m itching to cast on. If you want to join, I started an informal knitalong thread in the Cookie’s Socks and More group on Ravelry.