*Then* there was more energy to burn. Still love the sheep sweater and am eternally grateful that perserverance is prominent in my gene pool. Compliments always accompany the annual winter wearings of what has become known in my family as the “Princess Diana” or more simply “the Sheep Sweater”.
L-o-o-o-o-ng time ago, the former McCall’s Magazine used to feature a famous woman wearing a sweater on the cover. Inside the magazine, directions were printed to hand-knit the cover sweater. Two of those sweaters wound their way round my knitting needles. The Sheep Sweater was modeled by Princess Diana. The other was beautiful also, a dressy evening jacket in off-white modeled by Christina Ferrari (former wife of John DeLorean), but the Sheep Sweater is the only one of the two to survive the eventual closet cleanings.
The memory of hand-knitting a sweater using Size 0 (zero) for the ribbing and Size 1 on the body sticks with me to this day–never to be repeated. Falls into the “been there, done that” part of life.
*Now* there seems to be more things to do, using what energy is available. Knitting a sweater still seems like a great idea, but so do many other attention grabbing notions. The pink sweater caught me in a weak moment. The frugality gene insists that money spent for yarn must be rewarded with a finished project.
The perserverance gene is being tested. Severely. This time Size 11 needles are making the work go much faster. Actually the knitting part is done. What has slowed the approach to the finish line is the large chunks that need to be crocheted. An affinity for crocheting was not inherited in spite of my Grandmother’s beautiful crochet work.
Frugality and Perseverance will eventually win out. Until it becomes the next Then, however, Now is looking forward to the last stitch.
PS: Be sure to read the comments, as there have been several interesting additional bits of information about the Sheep Sweater since this was originally posted. A kind knitter in Florida still had the directions and sent me a copy. SEE DIRECTIONS BELOW. (Under picture of completed sweater.) CLICK ON and OPEN EACH SCAN. PRINT.
Lastly, there has been an uptick lately in people being referred to this post who are interested in the other two Princess Diana sweaters that were in the same article. The Kaola Bear directions as well as a third Llama Knit worn by the Princess are included in the scans listed below.
The cover scan shows the front cover of the January, 1984 McCall’s Magazine. Scans 2 and 3 show pictures of the Sheep Sweater, Scan 4 is a picture of the Kaola Bear Sweater and Scan 5 is the Llama Knit. Scans 6 and 7 are the directions for the Sheep Sweater. Scans 7 and 8 are the Llama Sweater directions. Scan 8 is the Kaola Sweater directions. Hope this saves some time searching for the ones you want.
cover scan 0001 scan0002 scan0003 scan0004 scan0005
An avid knitter who requested the directions quite sometime ago recently sent pictures of her completed Llama knit. She said she tweaked the neckline a bit, altering the neckline for a more updated look. I think she did a beautiful job.