FO Friday: Hipster Stripe
My FO for today is the prototype for my newest sweater pattern: Hipster Stripe!
This design is actually a re-working of a sweater I designed a few months ago, Anyone for Rugby? (link goes to Ravelry project page).
The original
I really, really liked that sweater… but I didn’t think it through. To maintain the wide stripe pattern for different sizes without changing the look, I had to increase or decrease the number of rows for each stripe. This meant that the extra-small size would be substantially shorter than the medium sample… and the plus sizes would have been down to the knees.
I made a promise to myself when I started designing that I would offer my garment patterns in a wide range of sizes. So when I figured out the workable range of this sweater would only be up to extra-large, it didn’t sit right. I went ahead and had the pattern test knitted, got it all ready to self-publish, and then couldn’t do it.
So this is the sweater reborn! Thinner stripes make it much easier to upsize and downsize, which is what I’m working on now.
The specs:
Pattern: My own! I’m thinking this one will be ready in about a month. It will be published through Knit Picks Independent Designer Program.
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Worsted in Black and White. This yarn is oddly, eerily similar to the Malabrigo Rios I used for the wider-stripe version. It feels very similar, looks almost the same, and blocked identically. I thought it would make a good substitute, and I was obviously right!
Notes: This is a fast, easy sweater. It’s top-down and each section (sleeve increases, neck increases, body) are done one after the other, which hopefully will make it suitable for less-experienced sweater knitters. For the original, several of the test-knitters made this as their first sweater–and their FOs look gorgeous!
I like this pic–but I can't decide if there's too much cleavage to make it useable. Thoughts?
Love it! I could see myself wearing it all the time. It’s awesome that you’re committed to giving a wide range of sizes, not just for people who are large or small, but for people who want to play around with gauge. Just this morning I was playing around with the idea of making an Adeiz in worsted weight instead of bulky, and wondering if the sizes went up enough to allow me to do that without doing math.
Very cute sweater!
Beautiful and very functional design! I’ll certainly be keeping an eye out for it, because I would love to not only knit it but also have it in my wardrobe.