A quartet of sweaters

Thoughts on knitting the same pattern over (and over) (and over)

Me, holding my four handknit Uniform sweaters, in my actual living room.

Before the pandemic, I never knit a pattern twice.

So many things have changed since March 2020, and it shouldn’t surprise me that my knitting preferences have changed too. Like a lot of people, my body changed during the pandemic. At one point, when very few of my handknit sweaters fit comfortably, and my storebought clothes were even less comfortable, I went through my entire wardrobe and rehomed absolutely everything that no longer felt right on my body. I shrunk my wardrobe to just a few pieces and decided to rebuild it very very slowly and to make as much of it as I possibly could. Having control over something felt good, especially during Covid surges, and having a Big Project and a lot to learn felt really good, too.

Now, two and a half years later, and in a different phase of a still-ongoing pandemic, I have knit multiples of several patterns!

This Sunday, I’d like to tell you about my quartet of Uniform cardigans (links to Ravelry), a pattern written by Carrie Bostick Hoge. The Uniform cardigan pattern is modular with different buttonband and hem options, and different sleeve lengths and silhouettes. It’s graded for fingering and worsted weight. The book is currently out of print, but you can purchase the cardigan patterns here, and the sewing pattern here if you want to make your own Uniform cardigan and/or sewn tunic. (Edited to add pattern purchase links.)

Uniform no. 1

• Worsted weight

• Non-superwash wool

• Shaped garter collar

• Tunic length, with a shaped garter hem

• Full length sleeves, with garter edging

I knit my first Uniform soon after the book came out in 2018. I knit it exactly as it had been pictured on the cover: with a wide, shaped garter collar, full-length sleeves, and a wide, shaped garter hem and a dropped back. It’s a staple of my fall and winter wardrobe. What I love about this one is that it’s neutral, goes with every single outfit I own, and the squishy, shaped garter collar is maximum cozy.

Uniform no. 2

• Worsted weight, in my Targhee Sweater base

• Striped with colorways: Molly, Morning Walkies, and Raii

• Simple 2x2 buttonband and sleeve detail

• Three-quarter length sleeve

• Dropped back, with the world’s most impractical and tiny inset pockets

I knit this version in September 2021, during the collaborative yarn & pattern release I did with Jacqueline Cieslak for her adorable Ursa Canis dog sweater. I wasn’t yet thinking as deeply about how to modify patterns for my changing body, but rather, I was interested in the adorable mini-palette of colors that I’d created for Ursa Canis. The colorway Molly is named for my beagle, Raii for Jacqui’s miniature schnauzer, and Morning Walkies for what every pup enjoys. After I finished this version, though, I realized how uniquely adapted it is for my lifestyle, my menopausal body, and my wardrobe.

Three quarter length sleeves help balance my body temperature. Since menopause, I run warmer, and on crisp mornings, it feels delicious to wear a warm worsted weight sweater and to still have that little bit of arm exposed to the air.

Cropped front and dropped back is a style I greatly enjoy. I love playing with lengths and layers, and I love how the front is a bit higher than the handmade Wiksten tank I’m wearing.

Uniform no. 3

• Worsted weight, with two yarns held double: my Harvest Sport and Mohair Lace

• Liquidambar colorway

• Shaped garter buttonband and sleeve detail

• Three-quarter length sleeve

• Cropped length

I knit this in October 2021, immediately after finishing Uniform no. 2. I love holding just about any yarn double with kid mohair and silk (my Mohair Lace base) and wanted a warm, cozy version for the winter—something with the same details as Uniform no. 1 but with three-quarter sleeves. This beauty has been worn nearly every week since I made it. The fabric is plush, and I knit it with about 4 inches of ease, so that when it’s unbuttoned, it floats and somehow magically manages to warm me and cool me at the same time.

Uniform no. 4

• Fingering weight, in my Winter Sock base (a wool/mohair/nylon blend)

• Dogwood colorway

• Shaped 2x2 buttonband and sleeve detail

• Three-quarter length sleeve

• Tunic length

I have affectionately dubbed this one my “last Uniform,” because a fingering weight tunic-length sweater is a lot of knitting. It might be my favorite, though. It’s so lightweight and it feels like wearing a cloud.

What makes a wardrobe staple

I have had a full wardrobe of handknit sweaters for at least six or seven years. Some years, I’ve added just one or two sweaters to my closet, and other years, I’ve added eight or more. I wear a handknit sweater nearly every single day. (Honestly, San Francisco is the best place to live for year-round sweater weather. Even on our hottest days, the evening almost always calls for an extra layer.)

Here are the small, but significant choices and tweaks that I think make a sweater a wardrobe staple:

• Harmony between the length of your sleeves and what you’ll be doing while wearing your sweater. I do a lot with my hands—dishes, cooking, yarn dyeing, working at the computer. I’m also warm a lot of the time. Three-quarter length sleeves are ideal for my temperature and for keeping my sleeve edges from getting wet or dirty! What might your ideal sleeve length be?

• The “right” amount of ease. I’m not talking about what the designer has specified, but the actual amount of ease you enjoy wearing. After knitting dozens of sweaters, my most-worn sweaters have around 4 to 5 inches of ease (meaning, they are 4 to 5 inches larger than my full bust). I simply like the way things drape and skim at this circumference. This helps me choose the right size to make for me. What kind of ease do your favorite sweaters have in common?

• A fabric that fills you with delight. I’ll share a secret with you: I often do not knit a sweater at the specified gauge. Rather, I like to play with my needles and swatch to get a fabric I love and that I love making. That’s not always the gauge a sweater pattern is written for, and I use a really simple percentage system to choose the size I knit. (For example, if my gauge is 90% of the pattern gauge, then I choose a “size” that’s 10% bigger than what I want my finished sweater to be.)

In the shop (& coming soon)

I’ve long been interested in the idea of a knitting pattern being modular. I love the idea of taking a basic building block and tailoring it to the amount of yarn I have, or the number of colors I’d like to use, or the edging treatments that best suit my style.

I created my Paintbox Wrap pattern exactly this way. It’s a long rectangle, knit on the bias, so it has a beautiful parallelogram shape, with 6, 7 or 8 color sections. It’s ideal for mini-skeins or for using up leftover bits and bobs of fingering weight yarn.

I’m in the midst of updating the pattern with new photographs, a new layout, and new edging options. (I took the photo above a few months ago but didn’t quite get all the shots I needed, so a fresh photo shoot is still on my to-do list.)

Until I update the pattern, I’m offering the current version at half off, for $3 instead of $6, with the code PAINTBOX.

If you buy a copy of the pattern now, before it’s updated, not only do you get a discount, but you’ll get the updated version free, just as soon as I publish it. (The updated version gets pushed out automatically to everyone who already owns it.)

Did you know? You can gift a copy of Paintbox Wrap to a knitting friend by using the “send as gift” function on Ravelry.

Sunday wishes

Thanks so much to everyone who voted in last Sunday’s poll and wanted to know more about my Uniform cardigans! It was super fun to do a living room photo shoot and tell you more about how I wear them.

(If you’re curious, the pants I’m wearing are Elizabeth Suzann’s Florence pant, with self-drafted patch pockets, and my tank is the Wiksten in a lightweight linen. I’m wearing the same outfit with all four sweaters to show you just how versatile they are.)

I’ll close this Sunday letter with a wish: May your handknit sweaters fit your body and your lifestyle perfectly. 💙