12/24/13 - oh dear - American Girl has come out with the “Saige Sweater for girls.” I actually prefer mine since theirs has a seam up the middle and two large yellow stripes on the sleeves. Although I could be a bit biased.
http://store.americangirl.com/agshop/html/item/id/237015/...
The last picture is the AG Saige Sweater for girls
April 17, 2013
First, I counted the stitches in the sweater of American Girl’s Girl of the Year, Saige, and drew out the vertical pattern on graph paper. Second, I spent quite a bit of time doing math; measurements, proportions, 183 rows, 245 stitches wide, etc. The American Doll proportions aren’t exactly right, so we’d need to add a little bit of pattern (three Vs - pink, red, yellow) to the torso. Then, I fiddled around with several yarns and needles to see what I would need to use in order to double knit a larger version: Gauge 7.5 per inch, yarn sport weight. Then, I got lucky in two ways - Karabella Yarns Aurora 4 sells all the colors we needed. AND - best of all Jared Flood had an almost-just-right pattern with gauge at 7.5! Obviously, it was going to need to be tweaked a little - no hem design, make it a little smaller, add a little more design to the collar (the dotted zig-zag from the pattern at the bottom), taper the collar, & double-knit.
For the sleeves, I didn’t add the extra V design that was placed at the torso - that way they’d fit onto the sweater in the same place of the pattern as on the little sweater. The “Fashioned Double Decreases” hurt my brain because I would end up using 3 needles and 2 stitch holders, but by the time I finished up the second sleeve, it looked so good I wished I had used that method to taper the collar. I had simply bound off 4 at the beginning of each row (decreasing 60 stitches on both sides in 30 rows). I don’t like the way it looks at all, but there’s NO WAY I’m taking that out and doing it again.
Sleeves 3/29/13 - 4/15/13
Blocking 4/15/13
The picture with the white background is the ad photo of the AG doll sweater