When this article appeared in Twist Collective, I was thunderstruck. I knew I had to make this wonderful sweater: a tribute to one of the greatest knitting legends of all time, Elizabeth Zimmermann. So, I was thrilled to learn that the pattern was being deconstructed by Sunday Holm, AND that there was a stash of the original yarn still left in the Briggs and Little vault. The sweater could be recreated as originally intended. My own little piece of history!
Wrong, Optimistic One! The original stash sold out faster than you can say computer meltdown!
Schoolhouse Press
The original yarn sold out within a couple of hours, leaving some of us desperately sad 
. But then, because of the high demand, B&L decided to dye another batch. Yay! 
And happiness ensued.
So, many of us received a shipment of the new batch, which actually seems better to me than knitting with 60-year old yarn.
I started the sweater last week and it is kind of going slower than I anticipated, considering that it is straight stockinette. The yarn itself is very thin (430 yds/113 gms!) though the pattern gauge is 5 sts to the inch. I am knitting mine at ~5.5 sts/inch.
The construction of the sweater is really the interesting thing about it: mitered front facings, deep armhole with gusset, squarish neckline, mitered sleeves. The folded facings and mitered corners are a little unusual and gave some knitters pause. I had to draw it out to figure it out:
In the original pattern, Sunday accidentally included the width of the facings in her overall finished measurements, so they are shown as 2 inches bigger than they really are. There is errata available that describes this and other minor corrections.
The sleeves are described as dolmans, but I think a more accurate description is a modified drop shoulder with an underarm gusset. The appearance is that of a dolman, but it really isn’t. EZ was brilliant. As you knit the sweater, you “cut out” a huge chunk at the armholes, but then add it back in (gray section in illustration below):
Once the gray area is added back in, the armhole is fairly standard, but the look is dramatic. The drama continues with the mitered sleeves and flared gauntlet at the wrist.
The sweater is very cropped. I do not wear cropped. I am too fat tall to wear cropped well. I am adding about 6.5 – 7 inches to the overall length and doing some gentle waist shaping.
Here is a picture of my EZ in progress, though I am farther along than this:
I am enjoying this immensely!!
Back a few weeks ago, I shared a free hat pattern: the One Day Hat. I knit one up for my DH and he LOVES it. I mean he really loves it! It fits his huge head perfectly and is very soft and rich looking:
More accurate color here:
The yarn is Geologee from Knit One Crochet Two Yarns (120 yards per 50 gms). Because the yarn is smaller than the weight of the original pattern, I used the Size XL numbers, a US 7 needle and it ended up perfect. In fact, the XL size was actually included for this purpose.
Now I am going to go knit on my EZ Green Sweater!!
PS: Jody writes, “I have several skeins of Briggs and Little that I picked up in New Brunswick 5 years ago and I can’t imagine ever using it. It’s just too scratchy.”
In response — the yarn IS scratchy, but softens when washed. I happen to love wooly wool. It wears like iron, hence the fact that the original sweater got so many years of active use. I don’t know that I would have chosen this yarn if it was on a shelf, but I am really happy to be able to use it to recreate this particular sweater.
