knitted :: Allegheny, originally uploaded by earthchick.

It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. I love sweater dresses and have owned several store-bought ones but had never made one. This summer, when Wool People came out, I just about died for love of the Allegheny pattern, by Thea Colman , whose patterns I basically always adore.

I could not order my yarn fast enough. In fact, I was on vacation at the time, and I had the yarn shipped to my next destination, so I could get on the swatching right away. I went with a yarn I had never tried – Plymouth Yarn Tweed – and I fell totally head-over-heels in love with it. I loved everything about it (including the price), and thought I had finally found a yarn to fill the hole that Classic Elite Skye Tweed had left in my heart.

Of course I discovered last week that it’s been discontinued. I can barely cope y’all.

But I digress. The pattern, the yarn, the experience of knitting it, all perfect. I loved it from start to finish (despite several inches of ripping when I misread the raglan shaping instructions near the beginning).

So perfect for fall.

The cable it just YUM, right?

You can see here, though, an unintentional mod I made – I inadvertently turned the empire waist into a dropped waist, due to: a) making the yoke deeper than I intended, b) unanticipated growth of dress in blocking (yes, I did a swatch and of course blocked as well – but my swatch was 4″ high and did not become longer, as opposed to a dress which has much more weight and did in fact grow). Because of this unintentional modification, I ended up skipping the little belt+button detail (a detail I *love* in the original pattern) because it would be drawing attention to the exact wrong part of my body.

You can see how dropped the waist is here:

(apologies for the ridic grainy pics – I had my camera on the wrong shutter speed, tried to brighten the exposure during processing, and ended up with this – but you can still get the idea)

Some day I may redo this knit to raise the waist and thus make it a bit more flattering, but that will have to wait until after sweater season, because right now I am loving wearing it too much to go back and reknit it!

One intentional mod I made:

I did a ribbed hem instead of a turned hem. I did this partly because it was quicker (and I was starting to run out of time to finish before Rhinebeck) and partly because I liked the look of the ribbed hem I saw on other people’s projects. It did change the a-line shape a bit more than I anticipated, but I decided I was happy with it nonetheless.

This was a very happy-making knit, y’all. It was fun to make and it’s fun to wear. I LOVE IT and you all need to make one.

I’ve got a few more pics of it to share, but those shots include someone else in the same dress, in a very different yarn, for a totally different look, and she hasn’t blogged hers yet. After she has, I’ll have more shots to share, including one of the two of us with the amazingly talented designer. Thanks, Thea, for another super pattern!!

raveled