It all started as I was standing in a store trying on a beautiful sweater. Himself says, “You could make that”   DOOMED!  He is right of course I could make that sweater so why am I thinking of buying it.  So right then and there the challenge began. I would no longer buy sweaters, but would only buy yarn and knit sweaters.

It sounds reasonable. I get to buy beautiful yarn and knit, which I am doing anyway. Soooooo why not knit sweaters that I want to wear.  For the most part of a year this has worked.  I was able to find patterns that are a style that I like and knit beautiful sweaters custom for me. BUT……there was this sweater that I really liked, no fair jJill.  AND……..I could not find a pattern similar to the style Soooooo……..the “crazy” began.

If I can follow a pattern, I should be able to write a pattern. Clearly I must have been drinking when I had that thought. Now mind you this is not a simple top down raglan sleeve pattern, oh no, this is a set-in sleeve, shawl collar, swing cardi. Let’s just take on the difficult project as our first project…..again the wine was talking.

I purchased the yarn, Madeline Tosh Vintage, bought a design your own sweater book, Knitwear Design Workshop, pulled out a sweater that fit me to perfection and began.

A giant swatch, a big calculator, graph paper, and tons of notes and I took the leap of knitting faith.

I created a bottom up design that had the shawl collar knit in as I went. Did a three needle bind off for the shoulders, and did the top down w&t sleeve method.

Did I get what I wanted, YES!

Does if fit me to perfection, YES!

Will I do it again, Maybe.

I love to knit for the relaxation of knitting, pattern design and constant calculations are not relaxing. With that said, I have already started another sweater, on the fly…..this time it is a top down, raglan sleeve, utilizing the Elizabeth Zimmerman percentage method. Not quite as crazy, except it is lace weight yarn.

In the meantime, I am off on another business trip. This time to Jacksonville, FL. Any great yarn stores there? And yes, the lace weight sweater project is going with me. 11 hours of travel should give me time to add a few more inches to the body of the sweater.