FO: Notre Dame de Grace on a Sunny Day
I’ve had my Notre Dame de Grace pullover done for months. It was a great sweater to take to the Midwest over the holidays; I could wear it without a jacket when driving between north-east Wisconsin and southern Illinois. However, I never seemed to get it photographed. So this Sunday, on a bright sunny morning, M and I headed out for coffee and errands, and I wore the sweater so we could get it recorded for posterity. I tried so hard not to squint, but clearly my light grey eyes decided on protecting themselves rather than on looking pretty.
I usually wear it this way with the collar up (keeps my neck warm), although below you can see it below with the collar down. I couldn’t find a decorative button I liked. A mediocre plastic one was priced at $8.50 at Joanne’s, so my Notre Dame de Grace remains button free.
Because the pattern was written for alpaca, I had to make a fiber sub, and I went with Cascade Ecological wool. I think this yarn came from a lovely hued silver-grey sheep, and I enjoyed working with this yarn very much. It is also holding up well with wear.
This sweater is meant to have positive ease for a casual fit, and so I made it wider at the bottom than in the bust to accommodate my bottom-heavy shape, and that was the least successful aspect of it. It should have zero ease at the hip-line and about 2 inches positive ease in the bust. However, it actually swings out a bit at the hip, and is correct at the bust.
This leaves me a bit perplexed as to what to do on my next sweater. Anybody have any experience with this sort of thing, and have some advice? I’ve measured myself repeatedly, and I always get the same numbers. And I can adjust sleeves to the right length, so why not horizontally? BTW, a quick read of Ravelry posts about this sweater indicates that almost everyone had to shorten the sleeves. I had to make them 3 inches shorter than called for.
Anyway, I am otherwise very pleased with how this turned out, and I enjoyed knitting it quite a bit. I’d definitely use this yarn again. Maybe I can find some from a beautiful charcoal grey sheep?
I have to share this photo I took one morning enroute to our local greengrocer. Hot air ballooning through the clouds.
No words of wisdom to share, but the sweater looks great on you! 🙂
Oh, balloons – always so much fun to see in the sky.
Maybe ribbing at the bottom of the sweater will help since it’s more adjustable. I’ve also used a pattern previously that had extra stitches in the purl part of the ribbing, which could be decreased when you got to the body of the sweater, and this was kind of a clever way of having extra stitches that went away without showing. But I think the sweater looks great!
I won’t even try to give advice since I’ve never knit a sweater. But it still looks great on you!!! So pretty.
(((hugs)))
Lovely, lovely sweater! (And that photo with the balloons made me gasp.) As for sweater-fitting . . . have you checked out Amy Herzog’s “Fit to Flatter” series? It’s wonderful. Here’s a link: http://www.amyherzogdesigns.com/2010/05/23/fit-to-flatter-installment-4-sweaters-and-you/
Brenda- I think you look very pretty! And so does the sweater.
Wow, that sweater looks great on you! The color and style are very flattering. I have a similar body shape (wider hips than bust), and I also am unsure how to adjust. I hate when the bottom falls at the midpoint, emphasizing the widest part. I try to look for designs that fall at the waist, or have waist shaping and then extend past the midpoint of the hips.
Those balloons are so cool!
Notre Dame de Grace looks fabulous on you but I’d read all sorts of sizing issues on Ravelry myself so I think you did a fantastic job! It looks like a good fit so I’m not sure of the issue?? to be more in line with what the designer wanted?