New Sweater Dress

I decided it was time to work on some larger projects for a change, I have been addicted to hats for long enough, time to move on, so I made a little tank top from some hand painted Cherry Tree Hill ribbon called Baby Sachet in the colorway Champlaign Sunset, and then I moved on to this sweater dress using a whole bunch of different rosey tones of wool, a wee bit of ribbon and some novelty yarns.


I was looking for interesting designs to incorporate into it and wanted a Greek key patten of some kind that would repeat around the sweater and connect one repeat to another, so I designed one myself, the lower fishy design is from a stitch bible book, and so is the flower motif just below the bust. The trim on the neck and sleeves is crocheted and I am still not sure I want longer sleeves but for now, I like it as it is.

The red wool is a 3 ply hand spun wool from someone at the Phiadelphia Guild of Handweavers. It was wonderful stuff to work with. I am going to work on more sweaters and larger pieces, they really don't take all that long, and I have a lot to learn about techniques so it keeps it interesting and engaging.

I basically work in the round until it feels big enough and then bind off a few stitches for the arm holes and then work the back and front separately and when I am ready for the neck (in this case, a v-neck) I split the stitches of the front and start to decrease each side. What I discovered with this piece is that I could work the front and the back simultaneously using two balls of yarn and keeping all the stitches on the same circular needles I wan using. THen when I split the front into the right and left sides, I still kept them all on the circs and introduced a new ball if the same yarn. I knot one piece, then the next, then the back, each from their respective balls, then turn and purl back each piece, each from his own ball. Kind of like kntiting two socks at once, each from its own ball. It makes the piece grow more slowly but consistently.

Blessings , love and peace,

Nancy