I was planning on sending my mom some flowers since she’s so full of worry for me right now. I even went as far as getting the number for their local florist and looking at bouquets online, but they just seemed so impersonal… But then, when I was on Goldhawk Road, I saw this dusty rose wool sweater knit in a shop and I instantly thought of my mom. For years, whenever anyone asked what her favourite colour was, she’d always reply with “dusty rose”.
So I had a look through my pattern archives and saw this fantastic cowl neck sweater in the very first KnipMode I ever bought (actually in a supermarket in Steenwijk, on one of the trips when we were buying our boat)!
Feb 2007 KnipMode, #23:
I think I must’ve got my love of interesting necklines from my mom, so I knew this was the pattern for her! And it just so happened to be plus sized, so I could combine a few sizes easily to get a cowl-necked sweater that was perfectly her!
It was a complete surprise and my dad helped to keep it that way until it arrived, and she said it made her day. So mission accomplished. 🙂 And here’s some more shots of it on my dressform, so you can see the neck shape and how it drapes nicely into place…
The only part that gave trouble was finishing that neckline – Knip appear to just keep a raw edge since their example uses a lycra jersey, but this sweater kit would unravel if let alone… So I first tried a rolled hem on my serger, but had a ton of “pokies” (threads poking through the stitching at the edge) so I cut that all off and instead just folded the edge under. Perhaps another time I’ll try facing the entire neck to eliminate the problem altogether!
And while I was buying this fabric, I ended up buying what was left on the roll, plus another metre to make sure I had enough, so I ultimately ended up with just enough leftover to make myself a matching mother-daughter sweater. I really wanted to take another stab at…
Oct 2007 KnipMode, #13:
I’d made before in purple fleece but the sleeves were cut on the cross grain so they’re very tight since there’s no stretch around the arm (the stretch is down the length of the sleeve, d’oh!). I still wear it, but I thought the pattern deserved a second chance in a floppier fabric.
Once again, the neckline gave me a bit of trouble – I didn’t have quite enough for the neckband/collar that the pattern specified, so I thought I’d just wing it and make it stretch to fit. Bad idea! So after admitting to myself that the stretched and pulled collar looked unforgivably awful, I cut off the collar at the stitching (there’s no way I’d ever unpick a serger seam for the sake of a few milimeters!), went back to my few meagre fabric scraps, and lengthened the collar to its proper proportions. This does mean that there are seams at each shoulder now instead of one at the centre back, but they’re not too noticeable anyway.
And I had to do the same to the hem band anyway, introducing side seams on the band, but those really do look like a design feature, and who am I to tell anyone different!
So instead of a full bouquet, we each enjoyed a rose of our own!
(omg the next photo I upload to the site will be the thousandth! That just blows my mind…)