the sweater

Shortly after my vest phase, I decided to move on to sweaters. I figured sleeves couldn't be that hard to add...

Again, I discovered another blog, and another designer to go with the sweater phase.

Knit and Tonic is another place I find great inspiration and fantastic patterns. While I now own most the patterns available from her blog, my first was Flair.

I loved the way this "swing jacket" hung, and thought it would be perfect for my sister in-law. The pattern was already double breasted, so I took advantage of that to turn it into a jacket that she could wear throughout her recent pregnancy. I extended the double breast on both the left and right front in order to allow for multiple rows of buttons. The jacket could then expand and contract with her current body needs. I also used a soft acrylic variegated yarn so when the baby came, it was totally baby friendly. She can toss it in the wash with everything else, on any cycle.

Contrary to the story with most "baby" items, the project was finished only a few months into the pregnancy. But, she moved, I moved, and the jacket didn't actually get sent until Miia was almost a month old. At least I got to send two baby sweaters along with it...

The top sweater is from One Skien, and I added some silk embroidery. The bottom one is out of some psychedelic boucle I had in my stash, and is my own design. It is basically a raglan, with and added cabled trim. While It looks like murky water, and has a very odd texture, the overall effect is rather cute. I will admit only a baby could get away with wearing it though. That much variegated boucle on anything larger than my niece would not go over well...