The Sweater Dress

A couple of months ago, I purchased 5 skeins of K1C2 Kettle Tweed.  I thought it wanted to be the Meridien cardigan. I was wrong. The more I knit with it, the more it spoke to me. It whispered "swingy lace pullover." I ignored it. Well, I ignored it for a while. It was insistent. "Swingy lace pullover," it said. "Said" is a bit of an understatement. By the time I listened, it was screaming at me. "SWINGY LACE PULLOVER!!!"

It had been a long time since I'd really designed anything, and I was allowing self-doubt to creep in.  But the yarn was extremely demanding. It almost took over the design process. I started sketching out an idea--boat neck, lace, A-line, raglan sleeves. The boat neck sort of surprised me. I've never knit a boat-neck sweater before. I don't even own any boat neck shirts. Where did that come from?

Once I had all the numbers worked and charts put together, I started. That was on October 2. Then I got distracted by another sweater and a shawl, which will each get their own blog posts later.

Then, one weekend in late October, I pulled out the Kettle Tweed swingy lace pullover and tackled it in earnest. I literally did nothing but knit all day Saturday. Sunday was more of the same, with a pause every once in a while to switch the loads of laundry. Even so, I didn't quite get it done. I still had the bottom band to do. That Monday night after work, it was done. I tried it on right away and was instantly in love. However, I knew it needed a good blocking before it was fit for public eyes.

A quick bath and block,

and it was dry and ready to go by the time I got home from work Tuesday evening.

 

What I thought was going to be a long-ish, tunic-length sweater was suddenly a dress. I couldn't be happier. I love it. It is comfortable, worn with leggings and a cami, and, of course, my "Sith-kicking Jedi boots."  The first day I wore it to work, a co-worker took these pics:

I love it so much. It's extremely comfortable and still looks dressy. Perfect!