Believe it or not, I’ve got knitting to blog about. Quite a lot of it, actually; this is just the first sweater. I’ll be blogging other finished projects in the next few days.
I actually finished this sweater last fall, and have worn the hell out of it (I’m sure you can see pilling in the photos). I’m not sure why it took me so long to photograph it. It’s knit from Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool, one of my very favourite yarns; this is the third sweater I’ve knit from it so far.
I could not have made this sweater with a straight face; it was a stash-busting project, something to knit for fun and wear around the house. It languished for a long time, at one point I put it aside with only one sleeve to go. I wasn’t sure if I would ever finish it. I thought it was laughably (if pleasingly) ugly.
Then I showed it to my friend Tara, who looked at it with a straight face and thought it was gorgeous. After getting her fresh perspective on it I picked it up again and finished it, and now I love it and wear it frequently.
I planned the shape of the sweater, but made up the colour pattern as I went along. The finishing was incredibly intense. After a false start or two, I came up with a labour-intensive seaming technique to give me the coloured seams I wanted. I tried several different collar solutions before deciding on the I-Cord-trimmed version I used. For weaving in ends, I split each strand into two plies and wove them in in separate directions using a sharp needle. There’s one point in the sweater where I had tried knitting the ends in as I went, but it wasn’t a very satisfactory result; it seems I’ve become very uptight about finishing details!
Considering that I usually knit sweaters in the round using one colour of yarn, this was quite a departure. It was a lot of fun though, and I want to do it again. I’m thinking of writing a pattern to sell that’s made in a similar way: worked in pieces with an intarsia pattern and coloured seams. It won’t be random blocks like this because holy crap, what a nightmare that would be to chart and size. I’m still rolling ideas for it around in my head.
17 Comments
I LOVE IT!!
I love colorwork and I love this sweater!! If you write up a pattern I’ll snap it up in moments flat!
Very. Cute.
I Love it too! It’s wonderful! Do tell the secret of the coloured seams-
that sweater is so pretty. normally i’d be put off by something like this, but it looks gorgeous.
Love it! I especially like how the orange gets to bring it all together! You do such lovely work!
I love it!!
i want a sweater like that
-spencer
It’s absolutely stunning!
beauty is IN the detail! I would absolutely buy a pattern of this magnitude (and I don’t buy often). I’m glad you finally got around to sharing this one!
This is gorgeous!!!
Gorgeous sweater. It looks like a vintage 1930’s design.
Mandy
This is more of a question than a comment.
I am knitting themagic halter top on the More Big Girl Knits book. I have come tothe upper body decreases and the math does not add up.
From the total stitch count at row 2 to the amount of stitches after 20 rows of decreases at each end (rows 3 & 4), it comes to 36 stitches not 18. This mistake throws everything after that totally off.
Could you please recompute and email me the corrections, at least for the 3X size.
My email addy is purpleiris@elkif.com
Thanking you in advance for your help,
Iris
Hey Mandy, this sweater is awesome, and so are you! Your forthcoming book too! Woot!
Hi Mandy – hope you are well. I'm finishing a sweater in one colourway, 3 weights of yarn, and want to do a contrast stitch colour to seam. Are you open to sharing your technique? I love the way this sweater looks that you've designed.
Hope to hear from you soon, one way or the other.
Esther
I hate knitting intarsia, but I would consider breaking my ban on it for that sweater. LOVE.
it’s gorgeous! i love it!
and for some reason this JUST showed up in my google reader, so I tweeted it, in case you’re wondering why you get more hits on this one today.
xo
This is gorgeous. Very retro cool. Love the neckline and the coloured seeming and esp the color combination.