We sure are living in crazy days, and when this all started I was still home with my husband.  I was stash diving and came across some yarn that I knew a friend of mine would be excited about.  She had just stocked a massive supply of Crazy, a made from mill ends waste reducing phenomenon from Stonehenge Fiber Mill in Northern Michigan. The yarn is CRAZY – meaning that no two skeins are alike in makeup. They may host similar colors, but the length of the color run, or even the shade that it is plied with will not be identical. This means they play well together but are not twins.

My friend Lori needed a great sample and most small business owners in the yarn world can always use another knitter making projects.  I love how soft Crazy is and how irregular it is to work with, but my mind needed order.  I created a simple pattern that takes advantage of the spontaneous nature of Crazy and brings a touch of order to the task making the finished project more cohesive.

Here is Crazy Days – you can pick up your own copy over on Ravelry, and I encourage you to pop on over to Arkansas Yarn Co. and show them a little love with an online purchase during these crazy days.

The Sweater: Petite Jardin

The Yarn: Brooklyn Tweed Arbor, a 100% American Targee Wool – DK  weight and 145 yards per 50G

Targee is a perfect example of the American Wool Industry in the Western United States. The sheep are hardy and the fiber is luxurious. Targee fiber is elastic in nature, has fine crimp like Merino and is matte. It takes color from dye exceptionally well and despite its soft hand and luxurious qualities it is a resilient and durable fiber. It is well suited for a multitude of garments.

The Designer: Whitney Terrell – The writer of this blog!

The Details: Petite Jardin is designed to be a sweet crop sweater that you can layer over your favorite blouse or dress, pair with jeans or a skirt and feel sweet, feminine and lovely.

It is delightfully customizable, with details to lengthen the hem and the sleeves to make it just the right piece for your wardrobe. Here on Jane, who is my best quarantine model – she is wearing the Petite Jardin Sweater with 5″ of positive ease.  It is cropped just above  her hip bone.

Here you can see it is swingy on her.  I am hoping that it will fit for a good long time, in a fresh shape she will enjoy at least for a few years. (Currently Jane is 4’10.5″ and 82lbs)

Sweaters are my favorite garment to knit. I wear them all the time and I especially love the process of designing.  I like to get my head around the puzzle of garment making.  For me it can take two forms, some designs make it all the way out as a pattern before the first stitch is knit. ( of course I have a swatch present so I know where the math should start.)

Other designs grow on the needles.  This is not my preferred way to design, but I do find it happening from time to time – especially when I am working in shapes like shawls. Sometimes a sketch is made first, and then the pattern writing happens while the piece is  on the needles.

The Petite Jardin Sweater started as a sketch, and then like wild fire it became a sweater. Once the first iteration was knit, I knew I wanted to make a few changes.  So after writing the sweater pattern I tweaked the yoke and now I think it is just right.

You can see the pink version is the original. It has clover around the neck, which I felt got muddled in the design. I changed it to be tiny tulips like the ones that complete the yoke color work.

So after knitting two versions, I really want to knit another!  I would love to have one with long sleeves, but I have to move on and work on the designs that I am itching to get out into the world.