I finished this sweater on Inauguration Day, January 21, 2009. Since it is also my first published design, I named it the “Inaugural Sweater”. It is knit seamlessly from the top-down with raglan shaping, and is meant to be worn with 0-1” of negative ease at the bust and 2”-3” of negative ease at the hips (this is to allow the garment to “open up” at the hips in a bit of an A-line fashion). Knitters wishing to have more ease at the hips can simply omit many (or all) of the decrease rows below the waist.

The size range is limited (it’s an older design, while my recent sweater patterns are size inclusive, I haven’t had time to rewrite this one), but if you’d like some help making a larger size, come see us in the Lyrical Knits Group for advice, suggestions, and help.

Change in needle size recommendation: When I first knit Inaugural, I was having trouble with my hands (thankfully, it was not carpal tunnel!) and was knitting very, very loosely, and needed to use a much smaller needle. Since then, my hands have improved significantly, and while I’m by no means a tight knitter, I reach for a size 6 (4 mm) needle when working with Malabrigo Worsted. I have amended the pattern recommend a size 6 (4 mm) needle, but please use whatever needle that you need to reach the proper (blocked) gauge.