FO: Ruffles and Stuff (With Actual Ruffles!)

I finished the long-term fingering weight sweater! It was a saga. Sometimes it was a slog. But it’s finished and I LOVE IT.

Pattern: Made up as I went using the contiguous sleeve method
Yarn: Recycled J Crew merino and about half a ball of Red Heart Sashay in Jive
Needles: US 2/2.75 mm

You guys. This sweater. The placement of the ruffles and where you’d think it would be pinned (along the top in the middle) make my hips look ENORMOUS. I am already distinctly pear-shaped thanks to years of sitting and slow boob-growth, but it this sweater? HIPS BABY. I don’t even care because the ruffles are so damn fun and I adore the low, wide neckline. LOVE. And it’s great that I love it because it certainly took me long enough to knit for a short-sleeved sweater.

Let me tell you about the construction. I used a top-down contiguous for the sleeves, both as a test of the method and because I wanted set-in sleeves. I knit down the shoulders, increased for the fronts, and knit merrily along til I got to the ruffles. After trying several joining methods, I ended up purling the yarn in and then I sat down to look at my creation. Only to see that the sweater did not even remotely fit around me. There was like a five-inch gap between the fronts that was not going to close. So I picked up some stitches, cast on 25 more for the front, and knit along, decreasing one of the picked up stitches at the end/beginning of every row until I had a panel that made the sweater actually fit. And then repeated along the other side, obviously.

I actually really like how the front panels came out. They drape really well and provide a large area for me to pin. I actually ended up sewing a twisted cord loop and button to the fronts just under the bust for a fastener after I took these photos, but on the off chance I wanted to pin the top of the neckline together for serious hippage, I could. I mostly wear my sweaters pinned just under the bust, so that’s where I put the clasp.

It’s a fun sweater. If I don’t wear the right clothes under it, I look hella pregnant, but it’s definitely a fun sweater.

In other news, I start my job full-time tomorrow. Tonight, I’m running to the thrift store to get some more office-appropriate skirts and pants (I particularly need some black pencil skirts), as well as probably some sweaters because I am nothing if not impulsive with yarn purchases. There will probably also be some mourning of the loss of my free afternoons. I guess I have to join the realm of real 9-5 (well, 8:15 to 5:15) workers. I will certainly get less Netflix-watching done. That’s probably good for my productivity anyway.