Saturday, December 29, 2007

a seasonal sweater

My penchant for vintage silhouettes often leads me to sweaters that have body-conscious shaping and style -"sweater girl" sweaters. One of these is the Spring Forward, Fall Back Sweater from the Thrifty Knitter, the author of Naughty Needles. I knit this design from 6 skeins of Noro Silk Garden for my sister as a Christmas present...

noro on1

All during the knitting of this sweater I doubted the finished object: the neck seemed too loose, the body too narrow, the colours of the yarn I chose non-harmonious. All I can say is "trust the pattern" because none of these things were an issue in the end. The blocking helped a lot to smooth the lumps of knitting and it looked so great on her:

noro on2

noro on3

Modifications - I added at least 2 inches to the narrow torso part, and more to the bottom edge. I didn't use the size 9 needles on the cuff and bottom ribbing, because I didn't want these parts to pull in. I did use size 9 on the neck ribbing... The rest of the sweater uses size 10 needles. I also made the sleeves long, long, long and flared them into bell sleeves with more ribbing than the original design called for. My version took 6 skeins of Noro Silk Garden with some bits left over from each skein. I skipped one of the colours in this Noro colourway - a flat brown - because I didn't like it; I just clipped it out and reattached the clipped ends when this colour came up in the skeins. The hardest part was matching the colour changes across arms and body, and although it turned out rather well, it took a lot of thought and planning and matching of skeins because with Noro, the colour changes don't match from skein to skein even in the same dye lot. It all worked out and the colour really suits her, I think!

She asked for more sweaters from this pattern. The fact that it's a top down raglan that would work up really quickly now that I know how to fit it to her specifically, means that she'll get her wish!

6 comments:

Teresa said...

That looks wonderful! I love that colour - I made something with it too.
I've got this one in my queue now :)

Unraveling Sophia said...

I'm so glad it came out! When I was finished with it, it was terribly fugly... all lumpy and rough. But once blocked it changed its tune and of course, the fact that it fit her just right helped a lot!!

I'll be looking to see how yours turns out! The funny thing is, that I have the Drops jacket you just made in my cue and will now make it with Manos because yours came out so well!! haha! Are we twins separated at birth or something???? (just kidding)...

Anonymous said...

The colours are gorgeous for a redhead and your sister looks great in it :-)

Teresa said...

We just both have wonderful taste :)

I did my Drops Jacket with Malabrigo - my friend like to call it the "less good" Manos. You can tell what she's a fan of.
I think it would be good with Manos too, actually. Hmmm, I have a load of pink Manos in me stash.

Ideas a-brewin!

Unraveling Sophia said...

Oh, yes, I meant Malabrigio - which I actually like better than Manos because its softer!

Briley said...

I'm so glad the sweater turned out well. In your earlier post about it I thought it looked wonderful, and was surprised you didn't like it. It does make a big difference to see it on a body, though.