Once Upon a Looking for Donna
As I think we all know, a busty curvy woman and I have a hard time fine sweaters that fit and flatter my titsframe. Last year MagKnits published Donna a pattern designed to fit a curvy woman. I squealed and decided this would be my first sweater even though it's knit flat, requires seaming and short row shaping. Behind the cut are lots of pictures of this sweater, and my thoughts on the pattern.

Pattern: Donna free from MagKnits
Yarn: Classic Elite Premiere, 50% pima cotton/50% tencel, 50 grams/108 yards per hank, DK weight.
Needles: #4 and #5 addi turbo needles (the pattern calls for #6 & #7, but I hit gauge on smaller needles. Yet another reason to do gauge swatches).

And here is the full length shot. I fuzzed my face somewhat because I look more than slightly undead.


Side views

A shocking picture of me not in my PJs. This is the corner of my office. Damn do I look professional. I scare myself.


I'm strangely pleased my pajama pants look good with the sweater.


Close up of stitch detail, side ribbing and modified ribbing on the bottom of the sleeve.


I made some changes to the pattern. The first change was the amount of short row shaping. I did way more short rows in order to accomodate my breasts (10" difference between rib cage and bust). short row close up. I managed to pick up the wraps neatly by carefully following this site. Short rows are fabulous and really make your finished garments fit more neatly. I would also suggest measuring the distance from the bottom of where you want the sweater to be, to the bottom of your bra band to make sure you start short rowing in the correct place.

I also changed the bottom of the sleeves. The pattern calls for plain ribbing, but I wanted something more interesting. I picked a ribbing pattern called "Jump Over the Broom" from Knitting on the Edge and got cracking. I knitted both sleeves at the same time on one long circular needle which was great because that ensured the sleeves were identical. I ended up decreasing faster than the pattern called for because otherwise my sleeves would have been way too long. As it is, they're longer than I intended. My row gauge was a bit off, which is where the main problem was (my arms are also a little short).

I ran into problems with the neckline, which is silly since it's just 1X1 ribbing. I did it up and it looked sloppy to me. I forget that I hate how 1x1 ribbing looks. So, I ripped it out and tried 2X1 ribbing on #4 needles which was better but still kind of floppy. So I ripped it out again, dropped down to #3 needles and did 2x1 ribbing. Finally, victory. This yarn needs to be knit more firmly than you may expect because it relaxes with time (and any contact with water).

I can not say how glad I am that I not only knitted a large gauge swatch, but that I washed the swatch and let it dry. I love this sweater, and the yarn, and I will definitely knit myself another one. I feel like a pin up girl at the office, or something.