I have had this pattern in my Ravelry queue since 2008. I started a gauge swatch and never touched it. This year, thanks to the inspiration provided by The Knit Girllls’ Stash Dash 2016 and the guidance from Helen Stewart of Curious Handmade podcast, Jo Milmine of Shiny Bees podcast and Gigi and Jasmin of the Knitmore Girls podcast, the sweater will be made! I thought it might be helpful to someone to see the process by which I make this sweater, so I’m writing about it.
The pattern is called the Butterfly Pullover by Mel Clark. It’s in a book called Knit 2 Together, Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun co-written by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark. I actually read this book cover to cover and recommend it. The patterns are all very interesting yet classic and many of them are just straight up fun! (I'm hoping to one day make the witch's britches and the gym slip dress.) There are also little Ullman tales sprinkled about the book that add charm and humor. There’s one story, “A Close Call” that is a must-read and probably experienced in some capacity by most yarn-crafters. (Tracey with knitting project got out of car. Ball of yarn that is being used to knit sweater remained in car. 😱 Something similar happened to me on the subway and on a plane and maybe on the Staten Island ferry and then I learned my lesson.)
The Butterfly Pullover is a henley pullover knit in four parts -- the front, the back, and two sleeves. These parts are then sewn together. I just don’t like sewing pieces together. I’m actually really good at it, but I prefer to knit things together as much as possible. I will usually only sew things together if they are striped or the garment needs side seams to fit better. I read through the instructions and the only challenge I see to knitting both sides at the same time together is the intarsia portion (intarsia in the round is no fun). The intarsia at the top of the sweater will be knit back and forth because they have to be separate in order to create armholes. The intarsia butterfly on the lower right front section will have to be done in the round. Do I really want that intarsia detail? I could easily eliminate it. After seeing how many stitches I’d need to carry backwards to bring the yarn back for the next row, I’ve decided to skip the intarsia butterfly and will knit the sweater in the round and keeping the intarsia flowers for the portions where I will be knitting the sweater back and forth. If I have extra yarn, I will add a kangaroo pocket to the front.
Now I can start knitting the project!
The pattern is called the Butterfly Pullover by Mel Clark. It’s in a book called Knit 2 Together, Patterns and Stories for Serious Knitting Fun co-written by Tracey Ullman and Mel Clark. I actually read this book cover to cover and recommend it. The patterns are all very interesting yet classic and many of them are just straight up fun! (I'm hoping to one day make the witch's britches and the gym slip dress.) There are also little Ullman tales sprinkled about the book that add charm and humor. There’s one story, “A Close Call” that is a must-read and probably experienced in some capacity by most yarn-crafters. (Tracey with knitting project got out of car. Ball of yarn that is being used to knit sweater remained in car. 😱 Something similar happened to me on the subway and on a plane and maybe on the Staten Island ferry and then I learned my lesson.)
The Butterfly Pullover is a henley pullover knit in four parts -- the front, the back, and two sleeves. These parts are then sewn together. I just don’t like sewing pieces together. I’m actually really good at it, but I prefer to knit things together as much as possible. I will usually only sew things together if they are striped or the garment needs side seams to fit better. I read through the instructions and the only challenge I see to knitting both sides at the same time together is the intarsia portion (intarsia in the round is no fun). The intarsia at the top of the sweater will be knit back and forth because they have to be separate in order to create armholes. The intarsia butterfly on the lower right front section will have to be done in the round. Do I really want that intarsia detail? I could easily eliminate it. After seeing how many stitches I’d need to carry backwards to bring the yarn back for the next row, I’ve decided to skip the intarsia butterfly and will knit the sweater in the round and keeping the intarsia flowers for the portions where I will be knitting the sweater back and forth. If I have extra yarn, I will add a kangaroo pocket to the front.
Now I can start knitting the project!
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