Sample – February Lady Sweater

Knit by Jill Merk.

When Jill and I were thinking about what our first sample knit should be for the store I was hoping for something versatile enough that any customer would enjoy knitting it and wearing it.  The first thing that popped into my head was the February Lady Sweater.  I had seen it knit up at shops, I had seen it worn by people at fairs, I had seen it knit in a variety of yarns and for a variety of body shapes.

When Jill finished the sweater she agreed: “I like this pattern because it allows a more personalized fit than many of the sweaters I have knit.”

The pattern is free on Ravelry; you can also read Jill’s notes and tips below.  As always, feel free to drop into the shop to get a closer look or try it on.

Technical Notes:

The sample sweater is size 41 inches with the smaller sleeves and narrower shoulders.  5 skeins of Cascade 220 were used.

The pattern allows the knitter to customize the fit of the sweater.  The sweater is knit in one piece from the neck down and divided into sections at the underarm.  The yoke is knit until the sleeve sections almost meet at the underarms, the body and sleeves are knit until they are 1 1/2 inches shorter than desired length of the finished garment and then the garter stitch border is added.

The sample garment has M1 increases in the yoke.  The yoke was knit until it was approximately 8 1/2 inches long and required nearly 2 skeins of yarn. To try the garment on, the five individual sections (front, sleeve, back, sleeve, front) were slipped onto five long pieces of a contrasting colour of yarn.  This allows the garment to be draped over the body and the size of the underarm gap measured.

The buttonholes were made using the tutorial suggested in the pattern.  The buttonholes were placed in the garter stitch section of the garment before the eyelet increases.

New balls of yarn were joined using a spit slice.  See Knitty Spring and Summer 2010 Techniques with Theresa for a description of this technique.

When knitting the Gull Lace pattern it is easy to miss a yarn over in rows 1 and 3.

The sleeve underarm was modified using a modification from Flint Knits FLS Mods – the 9 underarm stitches were picked up and then reduced in the following odd number rounds by SSK the first two picked up stitches, K to the last 2 picked up stitches and K2TOG.  This creates a smaller garter stitch section in the underarm area.

When working the sleeve in the round, the garter stitch border is created by alternating K and P rows.