As in Tippi Hedren. As in The Birds, my husband’s favorite Hitchcock movie.
Anyway, I love birds and I’m a sucker for knitting patterns that feature them. When I saw the Swallow Sweater (designed by Maschenwunder Manja Vogelsang) I was smitten — it was an immediate must knit.
I started this while recovering from foot surgery; it took my mind off being confined even more than usual under Covid. The main color is Biches & Bûches Le Cashmere & Lambswool. This yarn runs thick and thin and my knitting looked horribly uneven. After wet blocking, it plumped up and smoothed out. The final fabric is soft and wonderful. The knitting looks a bit rustic but it feels fabulous.
For contrast, I used a beautiful merino and silk sock yarn I picked up at knitting camp a few years ago: Fangirl Hand Dyed Yarn Silk Merino in Black Purl. The Black Purl is a subtle mix of gray, purple, and green that to me mimics the iridescence of bird feathers. The color is hard to capture in photographs but up close in person it works.
The pattern is well written and clear, but it’s complex to knit. There are multiple repeating charts and extremely long floats. To mitigate the floats, I used Susan’s invisible stranding technique as explained in her It’s Not About the Hat pattern.
I made two small changes to the pattern. Instead of a crew neck, I knit a funnel neck with contrast ribbing. I lengthened the body with a curved hem and shorter ribbing than the original.
It fits beautifully and I love it. This, like most yoke sweaters, looks better on a real body than on a mannequin but these photos will have to do!
P.S. I’m glad your daughter is safe, Kathy. We are safe but devastated by the shooting that occurred in Boulder. We live in a different part of town, but Boulder is small enough that it still feels close. I used to frequent that shopping center because there was a nice, large yarn store there until last year (Shuttles and Skeins). It’s very sad and unsettling.
