Rib - It

Hands down, my favorite sweater pattern this year has been Chicknits Ribby Cardi. I made two of them this year, and plan to make one more for Clem for her birthday.


What is great about this pattern is how the ribs shape the sweater, giving it a lot of detail with very little effort, like you can see in the shoulder decreases above. The back has some nice detail and shaping as well:


While I was waiting for these pictures to download, it occured to me that this would be a very good golf sweater. This raglan construction gives you a lot of freedom to move your arms, and it's a close fitting sweater so it won't get in the way when you putt.

I used two different yarns for this version. The multicolor yarn is from Make workshop, hand dyed worsted. The sleeves and trim are Lorna's Laces Shephard's Worsted, which is machine washable.

Although this is a great pattern it has a fatal flaw: the zipper closing. It took a lot of searching to find a zipper that fit this sweater, and the whole thing turned out real bad. I ended up taking out the zipper altogether and sewing up the front, so it actually is a mock zipper front but it looks surprisingly retro that way. For the upcoming version, though, I've got the problem licked: take it to a tailor and let him install the damn thing.