The Grrrl Sweater

A few weeks back, during that last hectic week of vacation time, I washed Middle Child's winter sweater and after spinning it in the machine and squishing it between fluffy cotton towels I took it outside on a breezy late summer day hoping that it would be dry Sooner rather than Later.

The sweater was made last fall according to the exacting specifications of Middle Child (aka Teenage Daughter). The sweater was to be super-warm, bum-covering, hand-covering, neck-covering (but no hood), and ... fitted. Right. The chosen yarn was the now sadly extinct discontinued White Buffalo wool in a lovely olive green. The sale price on the yarn meant that the materials for the sweater cost about $25, but designing it on the fly meant that it took months to finish and I began to think of the colour as frog pond green rather than olive green. Still, it did get finished just in time for the first fly of snow.

And it was a great success and the envy of all who beheld it. It was worn all winter, on its own although sometimes with many underlayers. After all, we do live in one of the world's coldest capital cities. But this is no wussy aprés ski sweater to look fetching in by the lodge fireplace. This sweater practically stands up on its own. Well, it at least sits in a chair on its own. Here is a detail showing the grrrl shaping.

The sweater is seamless, knit from the bottom up with the sleeves knit separately and joined in at the underams. The "wishbone" yoke shaping is as described in Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac in the December chapter - "Hurry-Up Last Minute Sweater".

And although it resembles nothing so much as one of those tabbed paper doll outfits when laid out (small car, not a huge sweater) ...

... it shows the self-supporting side of its firmly knit superbulky nature particularly well when you turn it inside-out (to give the inside a chance to dry).

The knitted-in kangaroo pocket needed some flow-through ventilation to encourage faster drying too.

And finally, the sweater also made a lovely backdrop for some more yummy yarn from Perchance to Knit, this time 4 oz (250 yards) of dk to light worsted weight handspun 100% Ile de France woo, aptly named "Amethyst".

I don't know what I will make with it. Maybe some nice warm mittens? Stay tuned.