theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Every once in a while there’s a sweater pattern that I just fall in love with and must knit. It may take me a long time, but I will eventually get around to it. One of those patterns is from an old Vogue Knitting. Here is the photograph that appeared in the magazine.

It was designed by Lily Chin, which surprised me. It doesn’t look like one of her designs to me — whatever that means. The yarn it called for — Edina Ronay Silk & Wool from Rowan/Westminster — is no longer available. I had to find a substitute. I’m knitting it out of Joseph Galler’s Extra Fine Pashmina in the color Musk (a beautiful soft brown with gray undertones). It’s gorgeous and wonderful to knit with. It will also be one of the most expensive sweaters I’ve ever knit.

I’ve finished the back and am just about to cross the fronts. It’s a tricky pattern, and I have made a few small changes to it. For example, as you can see from the photograph below it has Dolman sleeves. (It’s a horrible picture; sorry.)

The pattern has you cast on 6 stitches or so multiple times to get the curve and length of the sleeve. Instead, I cast on all of the stitches using a provisional cast on, and then added them in using short rows. Instead of binding them off in sets as the pattern instructed, I used short row shaping at the top of the sleeve as well. In other words, the stitches along the top and bottom of each sleeve are still “live.”

That means that when I finish the front, I will join the bottom edges of each sleeve using a three-needle bind off. At the top of the sleeves, I think I will graft instead for an even more invisible look.

This is a project that I started a long time ago and set aside for some reason I don’t even remember now. But I will finish it because I still love the pattern and the yarn.