I dream of knitting sweaters.
This time, I think, it will be different. I will finish a sweater. It will fit me. I will be truly happy. But then I remember! It always goes wrong, and I am left with a half-knitted sweater and a heap of unresolved anger issues.
I opened the October 2009 Lucky — I do this occasionally, if only to verify my years-long unfashionable streak — to discover a spread entitled: “Knits You Can Live In.”
I was incensed. How dare they showcase sweaters, not to mention $600 sweaters? I knit sweaters. I could make these for infinitely cheaper.
If I wanted to.
Probably…?
My uncertainty got me mad, which is always the inauspicious start of a lengthy, involved, and ultimately unsuccessful project, and I began scanning photos and angrily tabulating costs-per-yard.
The two sweaters below, from the October 2009 Lucky, average $532.50 . I guarantee that, even following the recommended yarns, I can knit these sweaters for less than $532.50 each. I searched Ravelry and the Internets to find the most appropriate knockoff patterns and then estimated the pattern and yarn costs. The yarn prices are mostly from Webs because they have most things and I am lazy.
Which sweater will be my sweater knockoff?
1. Nicole Farhi wool-blend sweater. $465.
I had a dilemma here. Should I go for the “feel” of the sweater — the swingy front — or try to approximate the bell-y sleeves?
Knowing my past history with huge chunky sleeves, I chose to declare that chunky, swingy sweaters with fairly tailored sleeves are officially in.
Pattern options:
Photo by Flick user postcool.
Wrenna, from French Girl Knits: Innovative Techniques, Romantic Details, and Feminine Designs
Swingy, button-free front. Sleeves that will not make me into a giant fluffy puppet.
Pattern cost: (for the book) List price, $24.95.
Suggested yarn: Twinkle Soft Chunky.
Estimated yarn cost: $57-$95.
Total project cost: $81.95 – $119.95.
My savings: 82%-74% (depending on size).
A free pattern option:
Emerald, from Knitty (omit the button, and there you go). This one has a similar picked-up-stitch ribbed hem, and is looser and longer than Wrenna.
Suggested yarn: Sheep Shop Yarn Company Sheep 2.
Estimated yarn cost: $89.90 – $170.81 (it is on sale!)
Total project cost: $89.90 – $170.81
My savings: 81% – 63% (depending on size).
My choice: Though Emerald is more like the original, being under 5′4″ makes me inclined to choose Wrenna.
2. Gudrun & Gudrun hooded wool knit jacket. $600.
Oh, what a tangled web I weave, when first I try to pull off a gigantic super bulky stocking-stitch garment. So this may be an intellectual exercise only, but here goes.
Rowan Hooded Coat from Studio Issue 13.
Pattern Cost: $15.50 (at Jimmy Beans Wool).
Suggested Yarn: Rowan Big Wool.
Suggested Yarn Cost: $150 – $195
Total Estimated Cost: $165.50 – $210.50
My savings: 72% – 65%.
Free option:
Cascade Magnum Women’s Jacket.
A fitted, more flattering version of the gigantic hooded coat. If I could pull one off, it would be this one.
Pattern Cost: Free!
Suggested Yarn: Cascade Magnum.
Suggested Yarn Cost: $87.80 – $109.75
My savings: 85% – 82%.
Out of the literally hundreds of options I perused, in the end, the Sweater I Am Most Likely To Knit and Possibly Finish would have to be Rowenna. It’s short, breezy, and not too bulky.
Of course, in my searches, I happened upon a pretty little tweed number called Nonpareil:
It is neither bulky, nor swingy, nor in fashion. Unlike all the sweaters I have actually finished, it is not knit in one piece, but involves set-in-sleeves, which I dread.
It is fitted and tweedy, and it perfectly matches my eighteenth century England fantasy life, in which I like horses and wear riding attire to tea to shock the neighborhood gossips and have sworn never to marry until a dashing duke’s son, a gambler with Bryonic tendencies, who has bet his three best friends he will never marry and is masquerading as a horse buyer rents my father’s hunting lodge for the winter.
Ahem.
Nonpareil it is, then. Do you see what I mean about lengthy, involved, and ultimately fruitless projects?
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