How To
Lessons in Blocking: Hadley Pullover
Dear Ann,
In knitting patterns, a fair amount of printer’s ink and pixels have been devoted to the phrase “block your swatch before measuring,” or words to that effect. Swatch-blocking is one of knitting’s Best Practices. I heartily approve of it. It is good common sense. I commend it to all.
Also: I generally disregard this advice. I trust to the designer to give me a fair rendering of Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large. I make the Medium, or the Large, depending on the shape and ease of the sweater. I know I’m a loose knitter, so I go down one needle size, automatically, from the prescribed size. And then I just trust to the universe that I’ll get a sweater that fits me pretty well. Over time, I’ve learned which sweater shapes I particularly like, and which ones are especially forgiving if the sweater comes out bigger than anticipated, as mine often do, due to my lax swatching and swatch-blocking practices.
The Hadley Pullover is a departure from my favorite sweater shapes, which tend to a boxy, square shape, and a tunic-style length that goes to the bottom of the hipular area, covering most of the bum. It’s a proportion thing. It’s also an “obscure the muffin-top” thing. It’s in there somewhere, no Spanx have been deployed or anything, but I like a sweater’s fit to keep a bit of mystery on that question.
Hadley is a different shape from my usual; it has some gentle hourglass shaping at the waist. I pondered omitting Hadley’s waist shaping altogether, but then I thought I should try something new, get outside my habitual shape zone, and see how it went. And it went fine, as I knit along. I just didn’t know if I’d like the fit of the sweater on me, or if perhaps it would end up on someone that it suited more.
Here’s Hadley, immediately after I joined up the underarms and wove in the (surprisingly few) ends:
It was good. I liked the sleeve length (and those deep cuffs: LOVE), and the non-hunchy shoulder appearance, thanks to Véronik Avery’s clever placement of the yoke colorwork; there is a flattering illusion of a wide neckline. On the other hand, I didn’t like the snuggish fit through the waist, and the way the hem pulled in.
(Also, the lighting is terrible, and the mirror selfie is inexcusable. If only Olive had opposable thumbs!)
I suspended judgment, though, because the almighty power of blocking had not yet been applied to this garment.
I soaked Hadley in tepid water and a blob of shampoo, and could see it growing before my eyes. I wasn’t surprised; this wasn’t my first encounter with Shelter. But who could predict how the fit would change? Would it get too big? Would it get bigger enough? Would it be Just Right?
Tick-tock, tick-tock, while Hadley dried on a towel, looking a bit huge. Laid flat, Hadley also looked a bit waist-forward, a little curvacious: Mae West’s ski sweater was a possible outcome. Still suspending judgment.
And finally, here it is, being admired by Olive, who loves welcoming new woolens, chiefly by lying on them:
My verdict:
- Muffin-top Situation: greatly ameliorated.
- Pully-inny ribbing: also greatly improved. Shelter does not have a lot of spring-back, which is a plus if you don’t like super-elastic ribbing.
- Skirt-like flare below the waist: less happy about this. I’m short-waisted. If the waist sat higher on me, the hip flare would be perfectly placed, where the hips flare. But my hips don’t actually flare that much in comparison to the waist. So it’s a little bit more of a peplum effect than I find ideal. This is not a problem with the design, which was intended to fit more closely than I knitted it. I purposely knit a larger size, with more ease, and more ease led to more flare at the bottom. I can’t complain.
- Final score: 8/10 Will Not Give Away. One other thing I’ve learned about handknits is that wearing them changes their shape to the wearer’s shape, in a wonderful way. This is my cold-weather, going to Vermont or maybe just Brooklyn, sweater now.
Love,
Kay
Kay, I love that your hips flare with flair 🙂 This looks better on you than you think it does. The eye is drawn to the beautiful yoke. If in doubt, just add a cross-body purse or satchel in cherry red and you’re good to go, every day of winter.
Veronica! Bless you for alerting me to the fact that misspelled “flare” 4 times. Grrrr. Very kind of you!
Agreed. It looks fabulous.
You look beautiful. That hug of color around your shoulders is striking and draws the eye to you. Blocking is a marvel.
Après blocking…..beautiful fit! It looks fabulous on you! That little flare gives shape without hug! I am so with you on camouflaging the muffin top! You’ll be wearing that sweater a lot!
Kay, you look fantastic in that! I have not jumped in the Hadley pool yet, but I’m going to now that I’ve seen it on you. I have schlumpy nonexistent shoulders and that yoke is perfectly placed to make shoulders magically appear!
Karen, I have the same shoulders, and I think this might work!
It’s great – I predict you will revise your rating upwards !
It looks amazing, Kay. Absolutely perfect! Well done!!
I literally gasped at the post-blocking photo. So flattering! I agree with JoEllen, this is destined to be a 9 or 10.
I love the way it fits – almost a tunic at the bottom, very fashion forward.
I have to agree with Veronica. It is very flattering on you–even the pre-blocked version looked good! I’m thinking you should reconsider your preferred sweater styles. 😉
Yay for you – I think it looks great! Excellent colour choice, too; suits you very well.
It looks so lovely!
That looks great, Kay! Cancel my rash comments (on Instagram) about doing vents.
It looks so great on you, that I now have to have one. Did you knit the length as written? I love how you did the neck. This should become one of your go tos.
It could be a visiting your friend in Connecticut sweater too. Just saying. I love it. Two opposable thumbs up from here xox
Love how it blocked out! (And as another woman with not much waist-to-hip differential . . . I tend to generally dislike waist shaping or the peplum-thing. But it’s working in this sweater! Really.) XO
It looks great on you. I sometimes struggle deciding on a size. I don’t like snug sweaters. The girls are my problem. After hearing “swatch” so much, I started making one before each sweater project–but not shawls and socks.
I am your body shape double (only probably larger). The look of my middle parts always makes me wince when I try anything even slightly fitted through the waist. I hadn’t considered a Hadley because of that, but now it’s in the queue! Thanks for yet another great reminder of the magic of blocking. (Hadley looks great on you!)
I love how that sweater fits you. The relaxing of the fit after blocking is wonderful.As you pointed out the colorwork is perfectly placed. I usually avoid colorwork at the shoulder area because it makes me look chunkier but this looks perfect. I might have to try it. Thanks for sharing. Also the ‘peplum’ is not as exaggerated as you think.
You rock that sweater. Olive is ready to go snowboarding.
Wow, I cannot believe the effect that blocking the sweater had on the shape! Thanks for this lesson. I, um, sometimes don’t block finished garments. Never again. I also sometimes don’t swatch and I never block my swatch when I bother to make one. Disgustingly lazy, I know. I’ll change my ways after this. The sweater looks soooo good on you Kay. Very pretty and flattering.
Ahhh your writing. I love it when your humor breakthrough, as in this article. Not too many things make me laugh out loud, but you do! Thank you!
For what it’s worth, I think it’s very flattering on you!
I think it looks just great! If there’s a superfluous flare effect, I can’t see it in the photograph. And I agree that knits seem to shape to us after a while. I can’t remember the last time I wore anything with shaping at the waist – I tend to go for tunic-lengths and loose/swingy fits these days – but that second picture is making me reconsider the option.
Gorgeous! The sweater & you in it! I think it looks great! Perfect pants for it too.
I think that sweater looks fantastic on you and I hope you feel fantastic in it. I also like how you styled it with those pants and shoes. Tres chic!
Your sweater looks great! Mine also transformed after blocking. I’m very happy with it.
It looks great! Lock it up, so the kids don’t “borrow” it!
(Olive was admiring your sweatert, until she thought she saw the Big Floral Damask Slipcover Monster move.)
I think it looks very nice on you, Kay. Thanks for the reminder that I’m playing with fire when I don’t swatch.
Having a hideous day at work. Finally found a few minutes to manage a microwave meal and a few seconds of quality blog browsing. You had me laughing out loud. Thank you so much for some much needed comic relief! Great sweater by the way – very flattering on you.
Lovely!
It’s always good to learn things when we knit a new project. For the Hadley, I blocked my swatch -never did that before, and then blocked the finished sweater – only do that occasionally. The result was a sweater that fits perfectly and is a joy to wear. Now on to swatch and block for the Colorwash Scarf KAL -yarn came today! Thank you Kay & Ann.
It looks great. I lessened the waist shaping perhaps a bit more than I needed to given my extreme short-waistedness, but I LOVE my Hadley and I know you will love yours too.
You look mah-velous! Love the blocked sweater on you. Makes me want to knit a Hadley for myself.
I’m so impressed by your finished sweater. I think it is very flattering and it looks wonderfully comfy!
Kay, you look like Saturday (on a beautiful, crisp fall morning). The sweater looks great; and, I like the collar. A lot. However, the pattern on the sleeves is my favorite!
Love Hadley, can never be bothered with swatching either ,way too eager to get going . Agree Hadley will settle with a few more wears , enjoy Vermont!!
I’ve got Hadley in my Rav queue, and am in the middle of processing a Romney ewe fleece (my first!) to use for it. The undyed ecru/light brown slightly variegated two ply will be the main color, and I hope to dye four contrasting colors in a mini gradient for the contrasting colors.
PS, I think it fits great. As women we are conditioned to be hyper critical of our bodies and how clothing fits on us. You do look perfectly wonderful in it.
“Wash and block your swatch.” “Do as I say, not as I do.”
I don’t swatch for shawls/socks/cowls, but always for sweaters, and they still lie to me! My Stopover swatch said I’d have a much larger sweater, but it turned out to be smaller and perfect. Go figure.
Your Hadley looks smashing on you. The yoke is very flattering! And the length is perfect.
I found your before and after blocking photos and sizing tips extremely helpful. So many sweaters seemed to be styled to fit like your pre-blocking photo, which looked good in you, but I’m uncomfortable wearing both physically and vainly.
I think think this post may have gotten me to try the Easel…. fingers crossed. I do know it’s only knitting and yet….
Thanks!
It’s gorgeous! Thank you for showing again the miraculous benefits of blocking!
It looks great on you! Someday, I’ll be done with gift-knitting and have time to finish mine, probably around the 4th of July. I guess it will give me a reason to look forward to cold weather!
I think that looks fantastic on you!