This is the most absurd thing to have knitted, on impulse, in April — which, when you think about it, is the whole fun of it. It’s good to go a little rogue on one’s well-laid plans once in awhile, as long as A) the journey is fun or B) the outcome is worthwhile. Hopefully both — and in this case, I can say both. Making a sweater in about a week is fun, no way around it, and the relative kookiness of the finished sweater will do my increasingly reserved closet some good. So I’m very happy with it, even while I’m leery of how this yarn will wear over time. As I mentioned somewhere in the comments last week, given that it’s basically single-ply merino (at superbulky gauge) I fear it will be a giant pilled bathmat within a couple of wears. I truly hope I’m wrong, but even if I’m right, I’ll be perfectly happy to wear it around the house nonstop with my flannel pajama pants in the cold months, because putting this on is like climbing inside your favorite pillow.
The pattern is a bit lacking, I have to say. The extremely basic construction of this makes it a great candidate for a beginner sweater, but I would never recommend it as anyone’s first sweater. Just because if you don’t already know how to put a sweater together, you’ll have no chance at making sense of these instructions. But if you’re capable of filling in the holes for yourself, and can get by on some rudimentary stitch counts and measurements and wing the rest, you’re good!
Pattern: Super Cropped Sweater by Loopy Mango
Yarn: Loopy Mango Merino No. 5 in Lady Blue
Cost: 5 balls (one more than the pattern calls for) at $28 each = $140
NOTE: I bought the yarn from the incredibly lovely Loopy Mango ladies while at Stitches South, and they very kindly threw in the big US19 needles (with hot pink cable!) in addition to their Loopy tote bag. I was super pleased with the whole shopping experience!
Modifications: My row gauge was more compact than theirs, so already it was going to take me more rows (and more yarn) to reach the designated measurements, but I also lengthened all of the parts. The body is meant to be 16″ and I made mine 18″. The sleeve length isn’t given, but if you tally up the rows and compare to their row count, it would come out to 10.4″ — too short for me. I wanted them a bit cropped but not elbow length; however, I was limited to what I could squeeze out of 1 ball per sleeve, which wound up to be just dandy. I also added neck shaping at the front (as opposed to the square neckhole of the pattern); knitted the sleeves flat rather than picking up stitches and knitting them top-down; and worked the neck band on US17 needles. I wish I had noticed that the pattern was not written for the nice long cuffs the sample had, which I loved — it appears to have had 12 rows of ribbing instead of 10 — but by the time I noticed it, I wasn’t going back.
I have only steam-blocked this, but did widen the body considerably in the process — mine is about 42″ circumference (compared to the pattern’s 32″), and as noted above, knitted to 18″ length (not 16″).
By the way, I opted to photograph this with the same clothes I had on that day at Stitches, and up until 10 minutes ago I could actually have gotten away with this exact outfit. But now we’re into the 80s and staying there. Hopefully there will be a cool night or two on the porch between now and fall, but I look forward to wearing this with a dress and boots once summer has come and gone.
See all posts on this sweater on the blog and on Instagram.
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PREVIOUSLY in 2016 FOs: Blue sleeve/less dress