Materials: An indeterminate amount (1000 yards?) of repurposed yarn; assorted size 7 needles.  Pattern: Francis Revisited.

Time: 1 month.

Cost: $0.

This sweater was the end result of the recycled Peace Fleece that I redyed last month.  My goals for it were very specific and straightforward: a sweater I could wear around our chilly apartment in winter, maximizing the yarn’s ability to take abuse and keep the wearer warm.  (I’m an advocate of fearlessly wearing what you knit, but I wouldn’t want to subject some of my other sweaters to the periodic bleach, grease, and food stains that my weekend clothing inevitably collects.)  I also wanted something that would cater to my weird clothing quirks: I push my sleeves up 95% of the time, even when it’s cold–I, like Dwight Schrute, cannot stand fabric around my wrists–so whatever sweater I chose would need to look good with 3/4 sleeves.  I’d also make it extra-long so that my lower back wouldn’t catch a draft when I sit down.

Francis Revisited fit the bill nicely, and the pattern’s cowl neck makes it a bit more interesting, and flattering, than your standard crewneck.  (My wardrobe history also reveals that I simply cannot resist a cowl.)  I messed around with the sizing of the pattern because my yarn worked up at a tighter gauge than the pattern called for, so most of its quirks come from that: the sleeves are a bit snug around the armpit compared to the rest of the sweater, and the waist shaping is a bit wonky (that’s what I get for not checking it against my own measurements, and not really caring if it wasn’t perfect).

I changed the edging stitch to a basic 2×2 rib, except for the edge of the cowl where I used a garter rib. Sleeves were knit straight and elbow-length, and since I wanted a looong sweater I just kept knitting the body until I got tired of it. As a result, it’s almost tunic length, and… actually surprisingly cute like that. The cowl edging I used is probably too floppy, so it’s a bit weird-looking (sort of like an oversized coffee filter), but because the yarn I used is scratchy against my skin I wouldn’t want anything that fits closely around my neck anyways.

I had low, low expectations of this sweater, so I was pleasantly surprised by the finished result. This would be really cute in the recommended yarn–something with alpaca, knit in a loose, drapey gauge.  That said, after the project I currently have on the needles, I’m going to take a vacation from the stockinette-stitch raglan sweaters for a while.  You can, in fact, have too much of a good thing.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm and is filed under diy, projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.