With time, I’ve learned to choose my knitting projects more and more wisely. It’s been years now since I’ve knit something and not had any use out of it. In short, I am usually pretty happy with my finished knit projects. But this one, ah, this one, I like it even more than the rest!
I first discovered the pattern years ago on Casey’s old blog: she had made an adorable turquoise version with white edging which had me convinced I needed the book it came from. Not that easy since it was out of print at the time. I had to wait for quite a long time before it was rereleased, but after months (years?) of stalking the designer’s website, finally, I could get my hands on it, and on volume 2 for good measure. These two books are chock-full of lovely designs I immediately added to my mental knitting queue, with this Frilly Jumper at the top, of course.
You know how knitting queues go (i.e. not fast), so it took me another few months (years?) before finally starting working on it. I knew I wanted a crisp white edging like Casey’s, but I agonised over the main colour for a while. Then I found this perfect red at Hema of all places (I didn’t even know they sold yarn until then), 100% cotton, and I got down to work.
Ravelry tells me it took me three months to knit, but I think it could have gone much faster had I had more free time during that period. It was an easy knit and the instructions were clear. I hesitated a bit over the size and chose to make a 76-81 cm (30-32’’) based on the finished measurements, which seemed plenty enough for my 33-34’’ bust. It was the right choice: the amount of ease is perfect for me and I love the fit of the finished sweater.
The only place I deviated from the pattern was the collar: the pattern has a four-piece collar, which I didn’t like at all. In fact, the thing I liked most about the pattern when I first saw it was what I thought was a ruffle collar. Ruffle, singular, not four ruffles. It’s only when I read through the instructions that I realised that there were indeed four separate parts to that collar. This made no sense to me, and I was so much keener on a one-piece collar frill, so I changed it. It was an easy modification: I simply knit one long neck frill of 342 stitches instead of four short ones, and seamed it up at the back afterwards. Apart from than that I followed the instructions for the small neck ruffles, only on a bigger width.
As always, you can find the rest of the technical details on my Ravelry, but this is the only consequent change I made.
This little summer sweater is one of my favourite knits ever, if not one of my favourite creations ever. It looks exactly like the picture I had in my head, and it goes with so many of my skirts… The only little thing I could criticise is the thickness of the sleeve frills, that prevents me from layering most of my long-sleeved sweaters over it. Still, the weather has allowed me to wear it a lot already, and I know it won’t spend a lot of time in the closet come the next warm season.
Rue des Renards 
Success once again! I admire how steadily you create a stream of wearable garments. I need to cultivate the kind of discipline you have.
Thank you so much, that’s so nice of you! If it helps, I have taken the habit of always asking myself the same questions before undertaking a new knitting/sewing project: one, what would I wear it with? Two, would I buy it in a shop? It really helps culling the projects I want to embark on! 🙂
I love it! Looks so fantastic on you.
Thank you so much! 🙂
Loving the vibrant red. It’s such a bold powerful colour.
Thank you, I love that colour too!
J’adore !! J’avais repéré ces deux livres aussi il y a longtemps mais je n’ai jamais sauté le pas car j’avais un peu peur que les modèles ne soient pas vraiment portables. Ton pull est vraiment adorable et tout à fait ton style 🙂 Est-ce que tu as d’autres modèles de ces deux livres de prévus ?
Merci! 🙂 C’est vrai qu’il y a certains modèles qui me semblent assez importables, mais il y en a aussi plein d’autres tout à fait portables. Pour info, même si ce modèle, mon préf’ de préf’, est issu du premier volume, je trouve qu’il y en a plus d’intéressants dans le deuxième volume.
Et oooooh oui j’ai d’autres modèles prévus: ce cardigan me plairait bien, ce pull aussi, ce manteau (bien que je doute franchement d’avoir un jour le courage de le tricoter, celui-là!), ce petit pull que je verrais bien en coton, ce béret trop mignon, et puis cet autre petit pull, lui aussi plutôt en coton (je n’aime pas les pulls en laine à manches courtes!), et puis encore, euh… je vais m’arrêter là, je commence à me stresser moi-même avec tous ces projets! 😀
Very cute, and you look so happy in the first picture – the sign of a successful made garment!
Thank you so much! Yes, that’s the mark of success! 😀
Il est trop cute!!
J’avais déjà repéré ces ouvrages, notamment pour ce pull: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-jan-sweater
Mais la difficulté de se procurer le-dit ouvrage et son prix pour un ou deux patrons m’ont carrément refroidi!
J’ai hâte de voir tes interprétations de ces modèles à l’avenir! 🙂
Merci! 🙂
Oh, le Jan sweater est justement un de mes patrons préférés, que je ne manquerai pas de faire un de ces prochains étés! As-tu vu qu’il est disponible à l’unité en pdf? C’est tout de suite moins intimidant, non? 🙂 Dommage qu’il n’en soit pas de même pour tous! Les livres existent aussi en pdf, mais là l’investissement reste conséquent et ça ne vaut toujours pas la peine si on n’est intéressé que par un ou deux patrons!
This is gorgeous! I too stalked Susan Crawford’s page hoping the books would become available again. Lol
Thank you! 🙂
Hahaha, now I’m feeling a little bit less crazy, or at least a little bit less alone in my craziness! 😀