Sweater Week, Round 3: The make. wear. love. fall 2015 retreat designs.

For round three of this year’s sweater week, I want to share the sweaters I designed for the fall 2015 make. wear. love. retreat in mid-coast Maine.

mwl-retreat-designs-mosaic

I love designing sweaters for our retreats each year. Coming up with a theme (this year: chilly-beach-walk clothes), playing around with the colors of the yarns our fabulous vendors will have, and seeing the transition from sketch to swatch to finished garment. This year, I decided to build two of the sweaters directly into CustomFit, and design one pattern in a construction I’ve been obsessed with lately.

I loved the freedom it gave me to devise three very different pullovers – and I’m thrilled to share them with you today.

Popham Beach

Popham-Beach-Hero

Popham Beach is an incredibly special place to me. I grew up clambering around the fort there, played in the water until my lips turned blue all summer long, every summer, and showed best friends from college the Milky Way in its breezy starlit nights. Now that I’m a slightly-less-hardy adult, a sweater of some sort is pretty much always necessary. This is the one I always wish for when I’m there.

You can customize your own right here in CustomFit, but are the details on my version: A low-hip pullover with comfy long sleeves, patch pockets, a wide scoop neckline. I’ve kept the fit relaxed and sweat-shirt-y by placing the waist shaping on the back only, giving a slouchier look than if the waist shaping were everywhere. (I’m wearing the pullover with an average fit.) Broken rib trims the whole thing up and is fun to work.

The sample is knit in The Fibre Company Cumbria, a new yarn I can’t say enough good things about. It’s a gorgeous wool blend with just a touch of mohair, which gives the fabric strength and a slight glow. It’s warm, it’s wooly, it’s everything you want your fall beach sweater to be. Create one for yourself by clicking here.


Popham-Beach-Pocket-Detail Popham-Beach-Neck-Detail

Parker Head

Parker-Head-Hero

Parker Head is a tiny little sub-village of Phippsburg, with a road that hugs the water and is barely one lane wide and gorgeous views of the end of the Kennebec River from most of the houses. My mother’s parents lived there when I was very young, and I have so many great memories of walking down the road to the wharf where my grandfather’s boat docked. I can still smell the water if I think of it.

For my memories of that gentler wharf, I wanted practical 3/4 sleeves (the cuffs don’t drag in everything), an easygoing stitch pattern, and a relaxed fit. This sweater, too, has waist shaping on the back only – and the front and sleeves are worked in a simple Dot Texture pattern. (The back is worked in Stockinette to facilitate shaping.) The wide mock turtleneck is versatile, layering-wise, and unfussy – but stylish, too. Jackie is wearing the sample in an average fit.

The sample is worked in The Woolen Rabbit Emma, in the color “Grey Goose”. This is a polwarth-silk blend – warm, with a slight sheen and drape from the silk. It’s an incredible material and I loved working with it. You can customize your own Parker Head pullover right in CustomFit by clicking here.


Parker-Head-Neck-Detail Parker-Head-Hem-Detail

Small Point Pullover.

Small-Point-Neck

I hope you’ll forgive me a bit of a tease with this one – Small Point is a traditional pattern, with a construction worked in one piece from hem to hem. The pattern is being edited, and I expect to be able to release it some time in the next week. Until then, here’s a bit of a taste!

It’s worked in Eden Cottage Bowland DK, in the “Steel” and “Pennine Mist” colorways. And I can’t wait to tell you the rest. 🙂

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It’s hard for me to believe the retreat is over, honestly – and that I’ll have to wait a whole year before I can go back and talk sweaters in my favorite place on earth. To keep the spirit alive, let’s share our projects in one central place?

Whether you joined us or not, share your swatches and projects with us with the hashtag #makewearloveretreat – it will be so amazing to see them all together. Until next time, happy knitting!

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