Res Completa: Holiday Sweater

It started in June. I saw Philigry's Amanda Sweater (based on a turtleneck worn by Cameron Diaz in The Holiday), fell in love, and immediately added it to my mental queue.

Then, at the end of October, Philigry's lovely sweater was featured in a Modification Monday segment over at Knitted Bliss. I still loved it. But I had so much stuff to knit! Especially with Christmas coming up.

Whatever. A week and a half later (after an encouraging/enabling note from Philigry herself) I had my yarn from Webs, and soon after that, I cast on. Just in time to wear home for Thanksgiving.



Pattern: Improvised top-down raglan
Yarn: Cascade 220, 4 skeins of Natural (8010)
Needles: US6 circs
Start to Finish: November 16-24, 2009

Notes: This sweater is a simple top-down raglan, with the cowl knitted on at the end. Loving the look of the neckline on Francis Revisited, I calculated the length of the cast-on edge and did mine the same. I did a few calculations beforehand to make sure I ended up with the bust and arm measurements I wanted and a raglan depth of 8 inches. I decreased 2 inches for the waist, then increased another 2 for the almost-to-the-hip hem.

If I hadn't been on a hard deadline (I was determined to wear this thing the night before Thanksgiving), I may have redone the sleeves. I thought I was giving them a little bit of positive ease, but I was wrong. I guess I have been working out more lately...(and by "working out" I mean "eating")...



I also may have redone the cuffs. Because buttons were going to go down there, I wanted to overlap the cuffs to make them look like they were actually buttoned. So, when I got to the ribbing, I started working them flat, and increased 4 stitches before I bound off. Because they're a little tight, they also get a little gappy when I bend my elbows. I think I will sew the two pieces together, now that I think about it.

For the cowl, I picked up stitches all the way around the cast-on collar edge and worked in reverse stockinette (turned the sweater inside out and knit it that way) for several inches. I thought about doing something at the edge of the cowl so it wouldn't curl, but decided I liked the curly look.



I LOVE this sweater. LOVE. I live in turtlenecks this time of year and am excited to have a winter white wardrobe item for this holiday season. Thanks so much to Philigry for this wonderful idea and to Julie at Knitted Bliss for reminding me about it!