The Red Bolero

My friend, Ann, bought red yarn to knit a bolero sweater to match the cute smocked dress she had made for her daughter.  Then she had twins!  She asked if I would be willing to knit the sweater for her and I agreed.  She sent me the yarn and I discovered that there was enough yarn to make two sweaters, which I did, so that the twins could wear them some day.  Now the pressure is on for Ann to make another dress.  Here's her cute daughter sporting the dress and the sweater.

The sweater sans Ann's daughter.

Here are the details of the process if you're interested.  Ann and I both became addicted to ravelry.com while searching for the perfect free bolero pattern.  We found this one:

Click here for pattern.

Ann thought it would be nice to add a simple pattern to the sweater so I went to my 'go to' knitting book, The Harmony Guide to Knitting.

I used the All-over Eyelets pattern on page 124.

I have this long mental list of things I've always wanted to try.  'Design a sweater' is on the list.  After this experience, I've decided that designing sweaters is not my thing.  I found it frustrating just to redesign this one.  And I didn't even redesign it really, just added a different stitch to the body of the pattern.  I've been a fan of designer Debbie Bliss for decades.  My respect for her work has grown leaps and bounds after this experience and I think I'll leave the 'designing of knitwear' up to her.  I can cross another thing off my bucket list.  Thanks for the opportunity Ann!