Friday, January 4, 2008

The chicken sweater: revisited, renamed

Some days I surprise myself and today was one of those. I hereby must rename the chicken sweater as it no longer resembles its former self. I prefer to call it the sundance (catalog) sweater from which the original inspiration came. I debated calling it Pat's sweater, but figured this might embarass her! So sundance it is, and it's even similar in color. Wish I knew how to include the picture from the catalog here but as you can see from yesterday's post, that much finagling on the computer might just throw me. But take my word for it, the basic qualities of the sweater are there.



It may be hard to tell in the picture, but this is a newborn size sweater. Yes, Anne Margaret the arm holes (not the raglan seams) are a bit snug but seeing as how this is a prototype I'm not too concerned. Here it is before sleeves:








And after:






And the rear view:










This was so much easier than I imagined once I did it on a small scale. The shear amount of time it takes to construct an adult size sweater is daunting enough and then throw in an unfamiliar technique and it seems like too much.





The next step is to make one for myself. I'll tweak a few things. First, it will be either long-sleeved or 3/4 sleeves, haven't decided. Also, I think I want white. I don't have a white sweater and have really been wanting one. It's going to be a cotton blend. I like the way it feels and drapes. I may include some kind of a single closure in the front with a really cool button and loop configuration, but that will come at the end. I'm going to do some subtle shaping at the sides to make it a more hourglass shape rather than the boxy, baby look. Also, I did the increases at the sides with a M1 increase which leaves a very small hole. It's a cute detail, but I think I'll do kfb increases instead and get rid of the hole.




So, Pam our Drops sweater knit along challenge is going to have to wait maybe a week so I can finish what I've started. And Pat, your sweater will be next! It will be worth the wait. I guarantee the more I make something the better it gets, so yours will hopefully be perfect!




One more picture (can you tell I'm at the library? this many pictures would have taken all day to load at home!). This is the unshaven felted bag I made:










The kids think it looks like an animal. It's going to be the perfect knitting bag once I shave and line it. Pam, this might be the perfect opportunity for a sewing tutorial from your mom!

2 comments:

Pamela said...

Go Sundance! I'll have to wait until the yarn crawl to start drops. I must agree with the kids - the felted bag does look like a beaver.

patience said...

just one more reason to love the library...have you tried panera? free wi-fi is good there and my favorite is the portabella on foccocia. so yummy!