The Perfect Transitional Sweater
This is not my typical type of sweater.
I’m not usually into short-sleeved sporty-looking hand-knit wool sweaters. But that’s what this sweater wanted to be, so that’s what this sweater is.
I tried to take down the sporty feel – that just looked half-assed.
I tried adding sleeves – they threw off the proportions – plus I ran out of yarn.
I tried doing turned hems – they were bulky.
I thought about doing buttons instead of a zipper – that felt wrong on every level – plus I love zippers on knits.
Once the body was done, instead of working a hem, I went back and added ribbing. I unpicked the bind off, dropped each stitch that I wanted to change from a knit to a purl, and picked them back up with a crochet hook.
This was definitely the right idea – even though it took forever and a half.
The turned hems were bulky, and sloppy, and felt heavy, whereas the ribbing is sleek and wonderful, and keeps the bottom hem from curling up beautifully.
My favorite part of this sweater is, by far, the zipper. I adore zippers in knits.
I’d never sewing a zipper into a hand-knit before, and am quite proud of how it came out. (Now I want to add zippers to all my sweaters.)
I put the zipper in by hand. First basting it in (to hold it in place, and help line up the stripes), and then using a back-stitch to sew it in properly.
Even with basting, the stripes are the teeniest smidge off (about half a row, most obviously on the first white stripe), which I’m a bit annoyed about.
Though not annoyed enough to take out and reattach the zipper.
And despite my face in this photo, I really do like this sweater.
It isn’t something I’d ever pick up in a store (theme!), but I’m really glad it’s part of my wardrobe. There’s something to be said for expanding your comfort zone.
And it really is kind of the perfect sweater for weird transitional weather.
The Self-Made Wardrobe Week 12 – the weather couldn’t quite figure out what was up
The Self-Made Wardrobe is a project where I only wear garments I’ve made.
It’s sort of a year long experiment in getting dressed without clothing labels.
Week 12 of the Self-Made Wardrobe:
the weather couldn’t quite figure out what was up this week, and neither could I.
DAY 78 – OCTOBER 17th
Blue Kimono
Khaki Scarf
Black Racerback Tank Top
Black Maxi Skirt with a Slit
Black Flats with Skull Beads
Princess Necklace
Various Rings
I actually ended up taking off the scarf as soon as I walked out the door – and it was far too hot for the sweater I was originally planning on wearing.
DAY 79 – OCTOBER 18th
Blue Kimono
Khaki Scarf
Black Racerback Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Sneakers
Pocket Watch Necklace
Various Rings
I ended up going to Rhinebeck at the very last minute, and needed something that would work well with sneakers. It turns out that not too much of my wardrobe works well with sneakers, this skirt does, and maybe my gingham skirt, but not much else.
DAY 80 – OCTOBER 19th
Moonstruck sweater
Black Racerback Tank Top
Red & White Pirate Skirt
Nude Booties
Bicycle Clock Necklace
Various Rings
I figured out the name of the pattern for this sweater! It’s the Moonstruck Sweater by A. Karen Alfke, available from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. I couldn’t remember the name of this sweater last week. I really love wearing this sweater, it’s one of the few sweaters I have where the sleeves are just the right length.
DAY 81 – OCTOBER 20th
Hand-Knit Sweater Dress
White Maxi Underskirt
Grey Tights
Brown Boots
Spinning Necklace
Various Rings
It’s the dress that I’d never wear if I hadn’t made it. I think next time I’m going to try it with black leggings.
DAY 82 – OCTOBER 21st
The Perfect Transitional Sweater
Black Racerback Tank Top
Graphic Silk Circle Skirt
Sneakers
Princess Necklace
Various Rings
This really is the Perfect Transitional Sweater. I’m not normally a fan of short sleeved sweaters – on this one I think it works, and I love it!
I do have a couple finishing touches I want to put on it (reinforcing the ends of the zipper, and adding a line of twill tape along the back of the neck for stability), which I’ll try and get to soon.
DAY 83 – OCTOBER 22nd
Moonstruck sweater
Jersey Wrap Dress
Tights
Various Rings
It was cold and rainy outside, and I didn’t need to leave the house, so I hid indoors all day (hence no shoes). This is a day when I desperately wanted a good flannel button up shirt. I have a store bought one that I absolutely love and adore to bits, and this was one of the first days when I really, really, missed a specific piece from my old store bought wardrobe. So, there will probably be a button up in my future.
DAY 84 – OCTOBER 23rd
Versio Sweater
Black Racerback Tank Top
Black Maxi with a Slit
Black Flats
Bicycle Clock Necklace
Various Rings
It started out a really cold and rainy day, and then ended up turning kind of beautiful – in an overcast and chilly kind of way. I ended up also putting on a scarf, and wouldn’t have regretted a pair of tights either.
Hand-Knit Sweater Dress – I highly doubt I’d wear this dress if I hadn’t knit it
The minute I decided I was actually going to do the self-made wardrobe project I started rummaging through my yarn and fabric to see what I already had on hand.
I came across a huge ball of lace weight yarn in fairly ghastly colors, but it was a beautiful yarn, with a great drape, so I figured I would just overdye* whatever I made with it.
*overdying is when you re-dye something (yarn, fabric, clothes, whatever) that’s already been dyed, so it’s a different color than it was originally dyed
The results were unexpected, and pretty spectacular. That being said, I would never wear this dress if I hadn’t knit it.
Never, ever, ever.
I don’t do pink.
I don’t do brown.
I don’t do tan.
I don’t do green.
I guess this is the exception that proves the rule…
Unfortunately the ball was unlabeled when I pulled it out of my yarn stash (oops), so I don’t know what the yarn is, or what the color way is, or what the yardage is. But I’m guessing that it’s a wool/silk blend, and that the yardage was around 1,000 yards.
ETA 10/25/14: I did a little digging and I think the yarn just might be “Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace” in the colorway “Vera.” In which case it’s a 50/50 wool/silk blend, with 1,250 yards per skein.
I wanted a simple straightforward lace weight sweater pattern, and the “Silken Straw Summer Sweater” from The Purl Bee was perfect. I loved how simple the design was, that it was written for a lace weight, and that I got gauge (almost).
Since I didn’t know how much yardage I had, I wanted to knit my sweater from the top-down, so I reworked the pattern to be top-down. I also eliminated some of the neckline shaping so that the front and back scooped evenly.
Other than that I basically worked the pattern as written – but backwards.
So increases became decreases, decreases became increases, cast-ons became bind-offs, and bind-offs became cast-ons, etc.
(I also did a garter ridge around each hem just before attaching the i-cord – I don’t remember if that’s in the original pattern or not.)
Because I kept going back and forth on over-dyeing I finished knitting this sweater way back in May, but then it sat on my desk unblocked until a couple weeks ago.
Overall, I really love how it turned out. It’s a weird, funky, unexpected, (hard to style), self-made wardrobe win.
