Alternate plans

The more I think about the sweaterdress, the more I think that this is just not the time for it. I really need to be able to sit and think and actually work on it in at a dedicated rate, and I just don’t have the time or energy for that right now. I do want to attempt another cardigan or pullover by the end of the year—I’ve only finished the one so far.

I turned to my queue and my favorites and made a short list of projects I think I would love in my purple Chickadee. Since I already have a GIANT knitted gauge swatch (that’s even been washed!), I figure I’ve already started on any of these. I have MORE than enough yarn for all of these, so that’s not an issue.

Delphine is from a Verena issue. I’m not sure that I have this issue, so that would be the first step (I’m pretty sure I do). I love the wide boatneck, the button detail, the fun mistake-rib (I think) detail on the body. I am trying to knit the queue (as part of Maria’s Queue-A-Long Project) and this is not in my queue, so that’s a quasi-strike against it.

Melissa Wehrle’s Carnaby Street Pullover has been a favorite of mine since her collection was published two years ago. Again, this one’s not in my queue, and as much as I love it, I wonder about the overall fit for larger sizes (though I could see this being super cute if it was a bit slouchy and super long, kind of like …a sweaterdress), and I’m worried the dark purple would kill the stitch definition.

Another one that’s not in the queue (I think I had an aversion to the idea of sportweight sweaters at some point?), Elinor Brown’s Summer Russet pullover is a sweet scoop necked sweater with a lace body. I think I was also worried about styling this over other clothes, but I looked through the finished projects (god, I love Ravelry), and I’ve seen it styled over t-shirts in ways that looked cute!

The only pattern that is in the queue is Amy Christoffer’s Larch Cardigan. I’ve loved this cardigan since I first saw it, and purchased it during Amy’s donation drive a few weeks ago. The drawback to this plan, though, is that I a) already have one store-bought purple cardigan and b) already have enough Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in another shade of purple to knit the Essential Cardigan (some day), so do I really need MORE purple cardigans?

I could literally sit here and ponder over this for hours. The first thing to do is to measure the gauge of the washed body of the sweater dress, then see how that matches to any of these patterns. And then to frog the body of the dress and let the yarn relax a bit. But I’m curious: If you were me, which pattern would you strongly consider?

Or I could just hide it all away and knit Chambourcin, Essential Cardigan, Tilted Duster, Featherweight, Molly Ringwald, Nymph Tee, Lucky (also by Melissa Wehrle), Candy Stripe Jacket, that one DROPS jacket, or Bergen Street Cardigan—all patterns for which I already have yarn.

I’m ridiculous.