theraineysisters knitting and so much more

May 24, 2017

From Both of Us — Grumpy Fan Paws

Filed under: Updates — Both Sisters @ 6:34 pm

Funky Grandpa is adorable and we wanted to keep its charm, with a few improvements in construction.  Susan started her FG before Sally and forged ahead through the uncharted [modification] jungle.  Whoever goes first has to wield the machete!!

We both used Carol Sunday’s 3-ply – Sally used Dove and Susan did hers in Smoke, with the same black and Zauberball.  Carol’s yarn is wonderful to knit with and unbelievably soft.  It worked perfectly here!

Susan’s Funky Grandpa

Sally’s Funky Grandpa

Our Mods
We started with the black rectangles at the shoulders with a provisional cast on.  We doubled the width of the shoulders for more support.  Then we attached the gray MC yarn for the back at each shoulder, increasing every other row at the neck edge for a bit and then cast on across the back.  This dipped the back neck down slightly.  The cast on across the back gave the sweater more structure.

We worked the back and fronts together even before joining at the underarm.  For each contrasting color (CC) stripe, we knit the 2-row CC stripe across the back, broke the yarn, worked the CC stripe across the right front, broke the yarn, worked the CC stripe across the left front; then for each section we knit 8 rows in the MC.  We continued this process to the underarms.  This meant that all the stripes match perfectly throughout.  Once the back and fronts are joined, the striping is no longer an issue.


The back folded over the front to show matching stripes

Because our shoulders were wider to start, we needed to adjust the front V-neck shaping.  Our V-necks are not as extreme as the original, so we did fewer short rows on the front bands.

Susan did increases throughout the body to create a longer, more A-lined silhouette.  Sally added a bit more length to the cropped body:


Instead of doubling the yarn for the bottom ribbing (1×1 in the original), we chose to do 3×1 ribbing on all edges in single yarn.  To bind off, Sally doubled her yarn, whereas Susan used some leftover 5-ply in the same color from her Milkweed.

The pattern called for afterthought, CUT IN buttonholes.  Ack!  NoAbsolutely not!!  Instead, we picked up front band sts so that the ribbing and buttonholes would be spaced properly and align with every other stripe.  That was a design feature we really liked in the original.

We were both able to find cute vintage buttons to go with the funky grandpa theme!


Susan found her buttons this year at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival


Sally had purchased her buttons earlier at Yarnover

So two Funkys for the price of one!  We were both surprised at how little yarn these took.  Sally only used three skeins of gray for hers.  Susan has no idea! 😉

6 Comments »

  1. Fantastic! Love your mods. They look fun, modern and classic. Great work.

    Comment by Elizabeth — May 24, 2017 @ 10:03 pm

  2. Your mods are great. I made this sweater and attempted some of my own, but it is not a great success and hence I don’t wear it often. I love your colors also.

    Comment by Mary Jo — May 24, 2017 @ 11:35 pm

  3. Perfect. Of course. You keep saying charm so I went to Ravelry and yes indeedy they all seem to have charm no matter how they modify in terms of colors and stripes. What a great pattern is that! Thank you both for so clearly describing your mods. They are all grist for the mill even if I only stick with small or simple things.

    Comment by Chloe — May 25, 2017 @ 7:20 am

  4. I love how these turned out! Perfect fits and wonderfully funky!

    Comment by Beth — May 26, 2017 @ 11:49 pm

  5. These are wonderful sweaters!

    Comment by twinsetellen — June 2, 2017 @ 10:40 pm

  6. I wish I had made the shoulders wider, but I did mine a couple of years ago and there were fewer comments to guide me. I compensated by using short rows topick up the neckline stitches so that the band is wider, and still flat, at the back and sides of the necline, narrowing at the bottom of the V. This was the time that i decided to conquer the top down set in sleeve which I have not liked. I reknit the sleeve cap four times before it was acceptable to me and vowed never to do it again. That said, I love the final seater and have worn it quite a bit.

    Comment by Ellen — June 6, 2017 @ 12:22 am

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