I published Everyday Sweater pattern this week, and today’s post is all about this design.
(promotion, haha)
I wanted to have a medium weight sweater, which means between fingering and worsted. There are a whole lot of patterns out there in fingering weight yarn (which should sell most) and another lot in worsted weight (that knits up quickly) and myself, I knit them a lot too but we need sometimes sweater in in-between thickness.
I also wanted to use those shoulder lines which are not exactly on your shoulders but slightly back on your back, like on ready-to-wear garments and much in vogue right now. I also wanted the neck to be not so low (I’m sensitive to the cold because of my age). The garment in this case should be simple and casual (though I have never designed other things), so the sleeves should not set-in but drop-shouldered… and finally I aimed for a sweatshirt-sweater.
I was going to use a Sport or DK weight yarn, and the yarn needed to be in solid color, not hand-dyed. In this case, I have to go and look into fonty, a French yarn brand that I love.
I opted for Cyclade, a sport weight yarn at the light end of the category, and made of recycled wool. Since they cannot be completely sure of the composition, the percentage of the wool is 95% minimum.
It’s relatively dry at first but I already used it and knew that it would get softer after washing, and it has got soft (not itchy even around the neck). It’s more affordable than their new wool yarn, a nice good value for money!
The shoulder line I wanted to use looks like this. The upper back is BTW worked first, then stitches are picked up for both fronts.
The armhole uses the modified drop-shoulder construction characterized by the shoulder narrower than the body, which is said to remove some bulk at the underarm.
The body is, after the back and front are joined, worked straight in the round, with my signature fake side seam stitch that you might be familiar with if you have already knitted one of my patterns after MLBC.
The modified drop-shoulder’s sleeves are inserted into this shoulder indent, and when worked from the top down, the top of the sleeve needs to be connected with the underarm edge.
We need some tricks to do this and you have two options for this (Size 1 however doesn’t need to work this part because the shoulder width is the same as the body width).
The finished sweater looks like a sweatshirt, as I imagined, yeah!
And I decided that the pattern would be unisex because the design IS.
The pattern offers Regular (AFAB) and Taller (AMAB) lengths and the latter is for men taller than 1m 70 (5’7″) supposed to have larger armscye and biceps.
I also included a bust adjustment option for busty women. And those are the options the pattern had when the test knitting started.
When the test started, it was too cold to wear this sweater every day, and I wanted a thicker sweater with a high neck collar. And I thought of fonty again!
This time, I bought Tartan 3, 100% wool with 140m for 50g, in charcoal grey.
On this second sample, I also changed the hem in a hi-lo hem, and worked the cuff ribbing longer (keeping the total sleeve length the same).
I usually don’t wear sample garments until the publication, but this one had a lot of wear because it was perfect in terms of the weather and mood, and it’s begun to have pills…
Here is the high neck collar version on me.
During the photo shoot, my cat came home from his patrol. I captured him to take some photos with him, and he looked straight into the camera!
So the pattern has also the tips for the high neck collar version (not the stitch-by-stitch instructions).
And, I had a tester who knit the sweater for her very tall and slim husband, and the tips we worked out for this body type are included too.
In short, the pattern has plenty of options and tips to cover a wide range of body types. I hope you knit a sweater that perfectly suit you and that you reach out every day!
To finish, unlike my two dark-color samples, my testers knitted it in lighter colors, and the sweater loos completely different! Discover my testers’ works here: #everyday_sweater
The pattern is available here: Everyday Sweater
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