Tsu Sweater

I love wearing this one so much.  I love this yarn. I love the lace.  I love the color.  It’s been a reeeeeeeally long time coming, but I would like to present you with:

The Tsu Sweater.

Some of you may remember me knitting this up last year.  It was my anniversary trip to Hawaii plane knitting.  I swatched and swatched and measured and did everything right, and when I tried it on…it was not right.  It was not right at all.  The neckline was not sitting right.  It was annoying to wear.  It looked sloppy on the dress form.  I tried saving the sweater.  Then I let it die.  It got frogged completely, and I used that ashes of that yarn to knit up the Clarity Cardigan.  That turned out to be my best selling pattern to date, so it wasn’t that bad of a turnout.

I moved on.  I told myself I learned a lot, and it just wouldn’t work.  The Tsu Sweater was a bust.

Then I started making friends.  I don’t want to name drop or anything, but I made friends with Alicia Plummer and Melissa Schaschwary.  Both are talented designers.  Both are moms with young kids.  It turned out we had a lot in common.  So anyway, they started looking at my project page on Ravelry, and pretty soon they each sent me a note about the frogged project of the Tsu Sweater.  What ever happened to that pattern?  It’s gorgeous!

So once again, I ordered some yarn.  This time I went for a different color just to mix it up a bit.  I waited a month or two until Quince and Co. had peacock back in stock.  In the mean time, I browsed Etsy on sleepless nights, looking for some “staging clothes” for my knitting patterns.  I found this vintage 1970’s skirt and thought it was just perfect.  I swatched a few new neckline techniques, from trying various cast on methods, to finally settling on this faux-ribbing stitch.  It had the look I wanted, without the stretch of ribbing.

My sister-in-law is getting into the photography business, and offered to do my photoshoots.  It was so much fun, and she was so easy to work with.  I was a little nervous because I like to think of myself as laid back, but when it comes to my design work, I’m a bit particular.  I knew her artist’s eye was particular as well, and I didn’t want us to clash because we had such a good relationship already.  It turns out her artist’s eye was spectacular, and I just loved all of the pictures she sent me.  We were totally on the same page, and so I’m excited to work with her lots in the future.

What I love about this sweater is not only how I love the fit, or color, or yarn.  When I see it, I think of the community of women in the online knitting community that have taken me in as one of their own.  We play up these designers as somehow famous, when they are just as crazy as the rest of us.  Besides Alicia and Melissa’s encouragement before the publication, after the publication, Joji and Bristol Ivy both sent me notes saying that they loved my new pattern.  I was flying on cloud 9.  Really?  C’mon people, let’s not undo all this humbling God has been working on with me.  🙂

The knitting world is actually a pretty small world.  I love this sweater because it’s a story of friendship. Tsubasa, who loaned me her gorgeous japanese clothes way back in the day.  Alicia and Melissa telling me to try one more time.  Kristin photographing this piece, and us working so easily and beautifully together.  Joji and Bristol encouraging me when it’s done.  I feel so so lucky when I wear this sweater.  

If you’re interested in knitting up your own Tsu Sweater, it’s more simple than you might think.  You can buy the sweater here:

 6.00

Or if you want to check out the sweater on Ravelry first, that can be found here.