Quite a few months ago my son drew a dress for me and a sweater for himself, all in one style. I first made the dress, reversing the colours by mistake.
His sweater is now finished and he has proudly worn it to school many times. We have altered the design slightly, as he originally meant the flowers to be on the sleeves, too. We have decided to skip them to speed up the process. He also mentioned that it would be nicer to have the flowers higher up on the front, but that would mean working intarcia in rounds, and I am not up to that.
I have used Drops Cotton Merino (110m/50g) yarn – 8 skeins of red and one skein of mustard) – more, than I expected. This blend is perfect for our rather warmer climate, I think. It’s easy to work with, and seems to be a good quality for the price. 4mm needles.
The construction is the basic top-down raglan. However, I worked the front and back separately after the diving for sleeves. Also, sleeves were made flat and not in the round. I have chosen this construction for two reasons: first, the intarcia pattern on the front. Second, the stability. I wanted a soft, fluid fabric with a lot of ease, so I used larger needles. This meant there was a greater risk that the sweater would stretch out a lot with wear, and the seams on the sides of the body and sleeves should give some structure and prevent the piece from loosing shape – and so far so good, it seems to be working.
For the back, I did an embroidery that repeats the stitches, using the same uarn but held double. It was more difficult than I thought, and I am not 100% happy with the result. The pattern is our family crest as invented by our children – a heart and an anchor blended together. I find it extremely touching that they have chosen those two items to symbolise our family and hope to live up to their expectations.
All in all, I have to say that I have fallen in love with top-down construction, and will probably use it more often from now on. I have already finished one crochet sweater for me, and am working on another. I hope to write about them soon!
