So I had this idea for a sweater one day last spring. It was still cold so I was thinking about warm things. It was probably the first time I've ever had the complete design in my head from the beginning rather than it evolving from something else.
It sat in the back of my head for a few months and before I knew it the Deep Fall Knitty deadline was looming a few weeks away. I ordered some Chunky Malabrigo in a gorgeous warm handpainted grey. We went on that vacation to Chattanooga and I took the knitting with me, but it's not good camping knitting so I didn't even start a sleeve until the car ride back. But I had almost a full sleeve done by the time we got home. Instant gratification is wonderful.
The hardest part of knitting it was having thick wool on my lap in July. I tried it on a few times as I went and I could not throw it off fast enough. It is WARM.
I finished the pattern and the sweater, and Ashley stepped in as a last minute model for me as my original model had a hair perm incident which apparently made her unfit for photographs.
Ashley was a great sport and managed to not look like she was wearing a superthick wool sweater when it was 95 degrees.
I got it done just in time to send it in and go to Knitting Camp. While I was there I talked to Amy (Detjen) a lot about fitting a range of sizes. I believe Amy told me there was a 1 inch difference in the shoulder to shoulder width between her and Joyce (go look at the picture of the 2 of them). Standard sizing tells designers that there is a much bigger difference in shoulder width.
Armed with this new information, I made some changes to the fit of the pattern for my friend Nancy who test knit it for me, and when Amy (Singer - Knitty's editor) emailed that I was accepted into Knitty we made those changes which I think made it even better.
The pattern can be found on Knitty now here. There are some other great patterns in this issue, I feel honored to be among such great company.
Ashley is a bit smaller than I am by the way, she cold probably have worn a smaller size. Here's what it looks like on me:
And it has been cool enough lately to actually wear it and not melt.