We’ve all got a favorite cozy sweater in our closets. You know the one – it’s so soft, snuggly, and warm that we wish we could wear it every day. The one that fits perfectly, is just right for our personality, and goes with all of our moods. It’s the embodiment of the favorite childhood blankie or stuffed animal, but in a form that is socially acceptable for adults. And when it wears out, we are sad to see it go.
Until we find a replacement that encapsulates all of those things, but is also full of new life.
I have been without my favorite cozy sweater for several winters now. That sweater is a heavily textured and cabled knit, in a medium warm grey, with a snuggly cowl neck, and fitted in all the right amounts in all the right places. I got complements every time I wore it. And I wore it so much that the dye faded from the key stress points. It faded to the extent that it was no longer acceptable as an outside-the-house sweater, and I finally put it aside. The goal, now that my knitting skills are at a point where I feel confident in tackling such a project, is to reproduce the sweater pattern (improving here and there) to make a new one. That project has been on the to do list for quite a while now and is slowly making it’s way to the top of the queue.
Meanwhile, I happened upon another cozy sweater pattern. This one was shuffled to the top of the priority list due to the acquisition of the perfect yarn for the project.
I can’t overstate the necessity of the perfect yarn to the success of the project vision. This was an example of purchasing yarn for a particular project, rather than finding a great project then visiting the stash to see what would work. The perfect yarn didn’t already exist in the stash, which was why the project was languishing in the queue. (This is what is happening with the favorite cabled knit sweater reproduction project described above. Sigh.)
Once the gift knitting was complete for the summer, I got to work on the sweater. The styling is fairly simple, with very little shaping. The stitch pattern and natural stretchiness in the yarn do most of the work to make the fabric smoothly flow over my curves. What appealed to me was that I could knit a sweater without negative ease and still have it look like I have a feminine form under there. No potato sacks here!
My only worry was the yardage. The estimate given in the pattern was spot on with what I had purchased (thank goodness for smart phones). But you know how that goes – every knitter’s mileage varies.
Lucky for me this is a top-down knit. I knit the body down to where the designer instructed to start the ribbing at the bottom band, then I put the stitches on a holder. Instead I knit both sleeves as instructed, paying attention to the amount of yarn remaining.
Once the sleeves and neckline were completed, I was happy to see that I had plenty of yarn left to knit the body as long as I liked. So I tried it on and kept knitting until I liked the length, adding the 2″ of ribbing at the bottom as instructed.
The sweater fits perfectly, and is a great color for me. I can dress it up or wear it around the house. And the yarn is so soft and snuggly. I can imagine many happy winters in this one!
For the Knitters:
- Pattern – On the Grass by Joji Locatelli
- Yarn – Klickitat by The Artful Ewe, brown/red-orange/gold (no colorway name on tag)
- Ravelry project page