Check Out Judith Durant’s Sweaters for Carousel

The worlds of knitting and Broadway might not mix often, but when they do, the result is pretty cool.

I love this story from the New York Times about the sweaters knit from the musical Carousel by Judith Durant, whose name you might know because she was an editor for Interweave. She was tasked with knitting 13 sweaters for the cast, but she ended up enlisting the aid of other knitters to help her meet the deadline.

The sweaters are made of acrylic so they can be washed daily, and they’re meant to look like the men knit the garments themselves so there are intentional mistakes. They are tight fitting and most feature horizontal stripes.

Durant said she gained 10 pounds and binge watched a lot of TV while working on the sweaters, sometimes working from 6 am until 2 am the next day.

From the results — and the Tony nomination for show’s costume designer — the effort was well worth it.

[Photo: Cody O’Loughlin of the New York Times.]

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I know knitting a dress sounds like a major time commitment. And that’s before I even tell you that this particular dress, the Sixth Ave Skater Dress by Briana Luppino, is worked in light fingering weight yarn.

But would you just take a moment to look at it and tell me if it doesn’t look like it would be worth all the time you would spend knitting it? And it’s miles of stockinette stitch so it’s actually beginner friendly and a great semi-mindless knit you can take with you on your travels this summer and wear when it is done.

The dress is worked from the top down with tank straps, a scoop neck, waist shaping and a flowy skirt for a fun and comfortable fit.

The pattern has 10 sizes, with finished bust measurements ranging from 28 to 64 inches, or 71.5 to 163 cm. The sample shown was worked with 4 inches/10 cm of negative ease at the bust, and the designer says most people like between 2 and 6 inches/5 to 15 cm of negative ease in the bust and around 10 inches/25.4 cm positive ease in the hips.

(To refresh your memory, negative ease means the measurement of the garment is smaller than your actual body measurement, while positive ease is bigger than your body.)

To pick a size you’d work from the bust measurement because you can always add more or fewer decreases as you need to get your desired fit at the waist and hips. And because it’s worked from the top down you can try it on as often as you like to make sure it’s the perfect fit.

The I-cord edgings give the dress a super casual feel, and I think this would be a great one to add to your summer rotation. (Yes, even with a wool blend yarn.)

You can see lots of cute finished versions and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself on Ravelry.

[Photo: Briana Luppino]

Book Review – Knitted Tanks and Tunics

How to Knit a Simple Sweater Dress

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