I’ve been knitting up a storm this fall/winter and have completed a (very speedy sweater) called Ingenue.
It’s a fairly basic raglan sleeved sweater, constructed top down & knit in the round.
Generally, when I get bored or when I get to a hard part of a project – I loose patience and wander off to a second project. But not this time! What kept me on track with knitting & completing this sweater was Megan & Michelle – my two new knitting buddies.
Michelle, a seasoned knitter (right) and Meg, a newbie knitter (middle) teamed up to make the Catherine wrap sweater in October. When they embarked on their second team project, they invited me to join along and I couldn’t be more stoked to join in the fun.
We met just about every Monday evening in November (as schedules allowed) had some yummy tea and knit together. Instead of just having one start date and another end date, we had weekly ‘homework assignments’ and by each Monday night session we were more or less in the same place on our sweaters. It was wonderful working together this way. No one was left behind and it really kept us on task, start to finish.
When I have to frog a given section and reknit – I have a bad habit of wandering away from the project. I had to rip out one of my sleeves and reknit it a bit smaller, as mine was too large near the shoulder (still kinda is – but no matter).
During this time, I cast on for my Victory Beret pattern and started knitting that instead.
But… the completion deadline was nearing and it made me get back on task with Ingenue and complete it once and for all. If I didn’t have this team to knit with who knows where the lovely Ingenue sweater would be right now!
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
Ingenue has been on my knit list for a while now. To me, this feels like a classic Audrey Hepburn sweater – a similar style you’d see in A Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
I’m not one for knitting in neutral colors, but this ivory sweater is going to fill a great gap in my winter wardrobe. Not to mention how great of a lounge sweater this is for cold evenings at home.
The neckline is my favorite aspect of this sweater.
The collar is folded down and stitched on the inside, so the neckline is very stable and upright.
Like I said earlier, this was such a speedy knit. I’m used to knitting with fingering weight yarn – so switching to worsted weight made everything go so quickly.
Speaking of yarn… I used Berocco Ultra alpaca yarn (50% wool, 50% alpaca) since I wanted a more drapey knit sweater. I swatched like a good knitter and I was 100% on gauge when I used a US size 7 knitting needle. But…. I ended up having to knit my sweater with 4″ negative ease – and yet it appears to be 0″ and in some instances positive ease. All I can say is, I did want a loose, drapey knit so I’m quite happy with the outcome despite the ease difference.
Enough pictures of me… look at these two lovely gals.
Michelle:
Michelle also used an alpaca-wool mix yarn, but her fit is wonderfully spot on. It’s like custom made or something?! heh
Meg the Grand:
Meg used a very dense wool-alpaca blend to great effect.
And lastly… None of these images would have been possible without Felix and Mike:
Knitting is a wonderful craft – but it does become so much more fun when knitting with some fun gal pals. :)
If you’d like to see more, I have the rest of the images up on flickr and some on my Ravelry page. Be sure to also check out Meg’s Ingenue post and Michelle’s Ingenue post for more fun reading.
In: Knitting
Your sweater looks fantastic. The fit is great and the style definitely suits you. Alpaca is always tricky because of it’s tendency to grow, but you managed it well. Ultra Alpaca is one of my favorite yarns, so I’m sure this sweater feels absolutely wonderful to wear!
Um, could you guys be any cuter in your matching sweaters?! I’m so jealous of your knitting group! Sounds like so much fun!
How lovely! Great sweaters and I love that you all met up together while knitting too.
You are SUCH a Precious child of God, Zilderoh. Felix and you are going to make exquisite babies :) Happy Holidays to you both!
These photos are just fantastic! And lovely sweaters all around!
Really gorgeous – you all look great ! Such a good idea to work on them at the same time :)
You look lovely! Wish i could teleport so I could join you lovely ladies in your next sweater. So fun!
Wah!! So jealous of your knifty knitty ladies!!! Love all the sweaters :)
These are so awesome! Wish I could knit! :) Love the colors of all three!
Pretty! I so want to do this with some friends. You all look great :) Thanks for talking about the ease, I love details :)
I love it that you three did this together in the way you did. Your sweater looks great on you and it’s such a great basic.
Wow! You inspire me more with each project! I love this sweater and my all time fav is your fabulous macaron dress with removable peplum! And it is such a nice idea to to a knit-along! Bravo! :D
I keep looking at all the pictures Mike and Felix took. They did a great job capturing how FABULOUS we are! :-D This project was so much fun!!!
Amazing work!! I love the color you choose! You look beautiful in soft neutrals! I love how you all worked together on this. You guys are totally making me miss my knitting friends! And my ability to get past the first portion of any knitting project before giving up ;(
Oh wow, that’s beautiful! You look great in it! Well done!
All the Ingenues look wonderful. I made one a few years ago and love it. Warm, comfy and dressy enough for work.
[…] Traditionally, I haven’t been successful with making any raglan-style sleeves. I have a very short armscye height and narrow shoulders, coupled with thicker upper arms. What ends up happening is that I look like I have mega armpit fat in my sweater – it just folds at the armpit all wrong. (See my Ingenue here). […]
[…] this is the same place Meg, Michelle, and I came for our first knit photo shoot in December of 2013. How the time […]