After hardly any fiber crafting in 2019, this year I have the urge to make sweaters. Of the 3 that I want to talk about here, 2 were heavily modified or improvised. Read on for a peek at the finished sweaters and some thoughts on improvising!
When I stumbled upon the lace design of the Springtime Pullover by Kim Barnett, I knew I would be modifying it in some way. I am absolutely terrible at seaming (See my mini rant/advice in this knitting tips post), so I wanted to work it in the round instead of flat. I decided to use Flax as a base pattern and work 3 repeats of the lace design on the front and the back of the sweater.
And voila! Here’s the finished product:
Another modification I really wanted to try is the V-neck. I did a lot of googling and some video watching on Youtube, and decided to give it a try. Let the record show that I did not do a great job on my first attempt! I would highly recommend spending the time on the math if you’re going to modify a crew neck pattern into a V-neck pattern. The neckline was so large on my first attempt that I could wear it as an off-the-shoulder top. Yikes! Luckily, with a little backtracking, it looked great once I added the ribbing. You can see the final neckline here:
I still have a ways to go on that one, but it’s coming along. 🙂 And if you ever want to find a way to use wild yarn, a stockinette sweater will certainly show it off!
Somehow the look of plain crochet in clothing feels more homemade to me, so I often prefer knitted tops. However, this cardigan looked so cozy that I simply couldn’t resist. This is the Up North Cardigan by Jess Coppom. This pattern has a video tutorial too, so it’s a great pick if you’re new to crocheted garments! The only modification I made was to pick up stitches and knit the collar to use less yarn. The additional seaming may or may not have had something to do with that decision as well. 😉
Have you ever modified a clothing pattern? How did it turn out?
