FO: February Lady
It's more like October. But what can I say, So Cal is getting colder everyday, walking Bagel at 7 in the morning is getting harder, and I badly need a sweater to throw over my Whittier Law School t-shirt and Aeropostale sweatpants.
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So, after spending 4 years on my Ravelry queue on-and-off, finally came February Lady Sweater!
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February Lady Sweater (Pattern: click here)
Yarn: Paton Classic Wool in Dark Grey Mix
Needle: US 8 (if I make this again, probably go down a size)
Mods:
Not much. I mean.... What can you do to a already perfect design/pattern? Guess how many people made this sweater on Ravelry? As of today, 9786 projects. If that doesn't prove this simple design, I dont know what can.
I was concerned about the 3-button design. I want to stay warm. And I saw a project page with a woman wearing it, with her pregnancy belly. It looked beautiful, but I didn't want my jacket to look like maternity clothes. I already have a pretty flabby, fat belly as is. So, no thanks.
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So I added more buttonholes, every 10 row. I used one-row buttonholes as suggested by the pattern. Finding buttons to go with this jacket was a bit difficult. I originally wanted big red, flashy, sexy buttons but I couldn't find any one in the right shade of red. All the red buttons I saw at Jo Ann looked pretty platicky and cheap. I spent like an hour there and ended up with big black buttons. It's still kind of blah so I might change these later.For now, these will just do.
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Collar: One thing about Elizabeth Zimmermann's designs I have a small complaint about is the neckline. Her designs are simple. I get that. But the crewnecks don't look good with my round Asian face shape. These pentagon-shaped neckline also doesn't look very polished in my opinion.
So I opted for more cold-weather proof, high collar at 7". All garter stitch to go with the rest of the sweater. I also made two buttonholes here. When all of the buttons are closed, and the collar folded down, the jacket looks a bit like a military jacket (oh-so-hot this year) and super cozy in particularly misty Irvine mornings. Most of the time, I like to leave the top open like the first picture.
To achieve this slightly denser collar, I picked up stitches with US 7 (smaller than the rest of the sweater), every stitch. Then I knit straight up 7" in garter st, keeping in mind, buttonholes every 10 rows.
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I might make a garter st belt for this sweater to tie around the waist since it still came out a bit bigger, even though I knit the smallest size in the pattern.
I'm glad I finally got to make this legendary piece. And now I know, that I get tired of garter sts and my gauge will get loose.