I knitted another sweater!!! Ok ok… I actually finished this over a month ago, and since then I’ve knit a whole ‘nother sweater. But let’s take this one day sweater at a time, shall we? 🙂
This is the Peggy Sue (oh yah, I’m so creative with my project names, ha!). You probably notice that it does differ slightly from the pattern picture – I made a couple changes (some intentional, some “oh well I done fucked that one up”).
For starts, I knit this in a smaller size than what I should be wearing – the XS, which is for a bust 30. I decided to do this after measuring a similar cropped sweater with a fit that I liked. Since the pattern calls for no waist shaping – it just goes straight down in a tube – I also added a few decreases to pull the body in to 24″ at the waist (again, my waist is not 24″ – but the copied-sweater has those measurements!). These are the changes I made intentionally.
Unintentional changes: Well, for one, the ribbing. It doesn’t come up nearly as high as the pattern is written! That was actually an accident – the pattern has you knit in straight stitch until 8.3cm or 3.5in. Being an American, I saw the 8.3 and assumed it was inches, so I merrily knitted myself 8″ of fucking stockinette. Double-checked the pattern as I was coming to the end, and realized they mean centimeters. WAH. Rather than rip all that shit out, I just drastically shortened the height of the ribbing and called it a day. I kind of like it better this way, I think it’s more flattering!
My other unintentional change was swapping out the buttons for snaps. I planned on sewing buttons – I even put in button holes on the button band (which you can baaarely see), but I managed to skip one, somehow. How? Lord knows. Anyway, my chosen buttons didn’t fit in the holes and since there was one missing (right between the bottom button and the third from the bottom – again, HOW DID I MISS THAT??), I just opted for snaps. It’s fine.
Anyway, I am pleased wit the fit! It’s nice and shrunken, and looks good whether the snaps are fully closed, partially open, or totally open…
See? 🙂
Anyway, this was as fun pattern to knit! The body is stockinette, with raglan sleeves (which means no wrapping for the sleeve caps, fuck yeah). The button band is moss stitch, and the ribbing involves some funky cabling. I likey!
I’m a big fan of this yarn, which was a gift from reader Holly, who offered it after I posted up my big knitting fail. She actually sent me a bunch of really sweet emails filled with great knitting advice, and the package she sent me was full of amazing – in addition to the yarn, there was fancy chocolate. Actually, those chocolates are the sole reason why I even eat chocolate now. I’ve always thought it was hilariously underwhelming (give me a good vanilla-flavored anything, any day of the week), but now I realize it’s because I was just eating shitty chocolate. Imagine that! This led me to try Nashville’s own local chocolatier, Olive and Sinclair, and a longtime romance has begun.
Oh, right, I’m supposed to be talking about this yarn! I don’t actually know what the yarn is specifically, brand-wise, but it’s a gorgeously soft merino and bamboo superwash. It’s somewhere in the DK-weight realm (although I compared it to some of my sport weight and I think it might be closer to that?). One thing that I didn’t notice on the skeins, but is apparent in the sweater is that there are some subtle color gradients going on. I LOVE THAT! I don’t care much for heavily variegated yarn – it’s just not my jam, sorry! – but the subtleness of this is just gorgeous and gives the sweater so much dimension. Love love loveee.
You can really see it here! Ahh, so pretty!
Per usual, I finished the button bands with petersham ribbon to keep them from stretching all crazy. I actually started to make a tutorial on how to do this, but I found it difficult to get a good picture and anyway, it’s literally just hand-sewing petersham ribbon to the back of the knitted band. So.. there’s your tutorial, I guess HAHA.
To block this, I just laid it on a towel and saturated it real good using a spray bottle. After my last fiasco with superwash, I didn’t want to risk it growing all weird!
I don’t know how much I can really call a sweater “summer appropriate” when I live in a climate that has regular 100*+ days, but this is probably the closest I’ll get. The fibers and light yarn weight are much cooler than my usual wool worsted weight sweaters.
Oh, and since a couple people asked – here are some pictures of the dress I’m wearing!
It’s vintage, probably from the late 50s/early 60s, based on the construction and style. I picked it up from the flea market last weekend for a sweet $30. It just *barely* fits me – like, I cannot gain any weight at ALL hahaha. It’s also pretty see-through, but I wear a slip under it and that works! Actually, this is the first time I’ve worn a slip under my clothes, I think. Lord, the majority of y’all must be rolling your eyes so hard at me right now haha.
Anyway, I guess that’s it! Full Ravelry notes (spoiler: there ain’t a lot) here. Thank you again for the yarn, Holly!!
Now to muster up the strength to pull on my second sweater and take pictures for that. It’s one of them worsted-weight wool ones, ugh 😉
OH, I almost forgot – I owe y’all a giveaway winner. Random Number Generator saysssss (dum dum dummm)….
Taryn is our winner! Yay, congratulations, Taryn!
Thanks to everyone who entered!
LLADYBIRD 
That is such a lovely sweater! And thanks so much for the extra dress pics! It’s soooo pretty! I have serious dress envy right now! Haha 🙂
I love this! You seem to making all the sweaters that I have in my favorites on Ravelry that I haven’t mustered up the courage to make!! This is awesome 🙂 I actually think I like your version better with the ribbing starting lower down, so I will have to keep that in mind. I am finally starting my Francis Revisited tonight!! 🙂
cute!
sweater looks great with the shorter ribbing
stopit. i know nothing about knitting but you are so cute that i am going to throw up. and that dress— are you kidding me?! I CAN’T HANDLE THIS. i forbid you from blogging anymore. i don’t know how i would be able to handle this in person— i’m going to have to cancel our yet to be scheduled photo shoots on account of death from cuteness.
also, as badly as you are convincing me that i want to learn to knit and make sweaters for myself i just know i don’t have the time for another hobby. I ONLY JUST LEARNED TO CREATE + REPLACE A BOBBIN— ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!
Don’t you DARE cancel on me! I neeeeeed your moral support!!
Sent from my HTC smartphone on the Now Network from Sprint!
Next time you miss a buttonhole, if your buttons are small, you can just force one through the knitting to make a hole. My aunt gave me a hand knitted cardigan for my daughter and she’d done it for all the holes.
I actually started to do that! Glad to know it’s acceptable in the knitting world 😀
Love the dress and yes is worth every penny!!!!
Very very cute! I’ve seen that pattern and I agree, I like it a LOT better with the shorter ribbing!
Great tutorial! Thanks! hehe
Really lovely sweater. And the vintage dress is just gorgeous. Nice work.
Cute sweater! My mom is a knitter, but not I. And, now I have the Peggy Sue song in my head. 🙂 Congrats to the winner!
Love the sweater and the dress! Thanks for the tips on the pattern. I need to start using petersham ribbon to stabilize my buttonholes…
I love purple (well obviously, since I just knit something purple too- that kinda counts as knitting twins right? Lol). I agree, I really like that the ribbing starts lower than the pattern! Oh and just being a nosy knitter because I’m curious about fit, but how much negative ease did you use?
This is so cute and versatile because cropped cardigans are awesome. 🙂 I love how you have another FO in the barrel… you’re a pro knitter now! 😀
It has a pretty good chunk of negative ease! I think the finished measurements are 30-24, and my actuals are 34-26. Although blocking may have changed those measurements because the bust definitely fits more than the waist, even though it has twice as much negative ease. Anyway, 30-24 was what I was aiming for, ha! 🙂
Oh cool! I’ve been scared of doing more than 3″ of negative ease in a cardigan. I thought it might pull the button bands a lot but yours looks great! I’ll store it in the old knowledge bank heh 🙂 Thanks!
Jo, you can measure mine and me as well if you want to look at it in person. I had less negative ease and found the button bands do pull a bit, so I’m going to take a leaf out of Lladybird’s book and add ribbon to the bands.
what a lovely sweater. I wish I could knit 😦
Wow! I’ve never won a blog giveaway! or maybe any giveaway. Thank you so much! By the way your knitting projects – this one especially – really makes me want to give knitting another try (beyond knitting rectangles, at which I am an EXPERT).
Eeee! I am knitting the exact same pattern! I think I like your change with the longer stockinette section though… hmmm. You’ve now motivated me to dig it out and get knitting. I need me a Peggy Sue!
This is so super cute! Love it. Another one for the ravelry queue. I’m basically just adding everything you make because they all turn out so awesome!
This is so super cute! Love it. Another one for my ravelry queue. I’m basically just adding everything you make because they all turn out so awesome! And dark purple??? Looks amazing!
Gorgeous sweater Lauren…looks super cute with your lil vintage dress too!
Gorgeous sweater, it looks super-cute on you. Like your dress, too.
Congrats Taryn!
LOVE the sweater! It looks like it is too small when just buttoned in the middle, but when it is all buttoned it looks perfect! I partly wish I knew how to knit, but I am still learning so much with sewing so maybe next decade. 🙂
I’ve got this one in my favourites in Ravelry too. I can’t wait to see your Marion!
That is such a cute sweater, I love it! I really must learn to knit better, hah!
Beautiful sweater! The ribbing is so neat. It looks fantastic with that dress!
love the dress!
Cute sweater! I really like the cabled ribbing. And every time you post a finished knitting project, I think that I really need to give it a go.
Very sweet sweater! The color is gorgeous, and I really like the shaping. Wow, that dress was a steal! Love it!
Love your cardi!
So cute! I love that the mistakes turned into perfect modifications. That’s exactly the kind of sweater I need for office air conditioning.
Peggy Sue was the first (and only so far) grown-up garment I knitted, in January just gone. I’m still waiting for photos to blog it though. I changed mine up two but the other way – I’m really high waisted so I started the ribbing just under my boobs and finished at my natural waist. But YOU are the reason I realised that cropped cardigans were what I needed to make/buy for my shape and aesthetic and I chose this pattern with that in mind! So I’m not surprised to see it here. Yours is absolutely beautiful!