On yesterday's blog post I told you all about how Patsy was born, and in part, Patsy was a swatch for this sweater! If you follow our blog, you know that I love knitting hats as swatches because I love and value swatching, but hate the feeling of "wasting" knitting time.
(A bit of a side note, but it is worth noting this only works if the thing I'm swatching for is a sweater knit in the round because my flat gauge and my in-the-round gauge differ slightly. My purls are tight. There. I admitted it. No one is perfect.)
Jenny is knit from the top down, which is not how I usually roll. I like a traditional bottom-up sweater, but this one seemed well-suited to working from the neck down, and I know the knitters LOVE a top down sweater. (You're welcome!) And although they're very similar, the yoke pattern on Jenny differs from Patsy a little bit. I think this makes it okay to wear them together - I hate being too matchy-matchy!
There are traditional yoke increases worked in the patterning, and then short-row shaping is worked across the back stitches, so that the neck has a nice scoop in the front. Following that are a series of raglan increases to get you to the right number of sleeve stitches. The sleeves are designed to have ample room for movement and comfort, while still looking flattering. I have arms, and they are nice, solid, womanly arms. There is nothing worse than a tight, constricting sleeve on an otherwise well-proportioned sweater, am I right?
As a quick note, one easy way to customize the sweater is to work more (or fewer) raglan increases at the bottom of the yoke. If you take a look at the pattern schematic, you can check the upper arm circumferences and compare them to your own, this way you will know what to expect and how the sweater will fit you and your unique proportions!
I'll be wearing my Jenny sample this weekend at VK Live NYC, and I hope to see you there!