Knitting-warehouse Blog "The Jane Austen Book Club" Sweater, Tips to Create It

Have you ever seen the movie, "The Jane Austen Book Club"? You may have noticed the sweater Jocelyn, the character played by Maria Bello, wore in the beach scene. See a picture of this sweater here. An investigation on the internet did not turn up a source for this sweater that we could find. One internet post mentioned this website, Anthropologie.com, but we could not find the sweater here and we could not find an exact pattern. So how could you go about recreating this sweater? That is a good question and one that we asked too. Although we don't have a comprehensive pattern or exact instructions, we have done some research and found some resources to help you recreate a knitted version of this sweater if you are willing to give it a try. We can't vouch for the results as we have not tested this, but we think this will work in theory. The first thing to try is, see if you can find a similar pattern somewhere else. The pattern we found that seemed similar in shape to the sweater is this one, Panini Sweater. This pattern uses a heavy worsted weight yarn called Berroco Peruvia. But the sweater from the movie has intarsia and/or fair isle motifs and these are usually knit in a DK Light Weight Yarn. We do carry DK Light Weight Yarn here, 3 - Light Weight Yarn. Patons Classic Wool Dk Super Wash Yarn has the most color choices of the DK Light weight yarn we carry. If you don't care for this yarn, see what other yarns other knitters recommend for fair isle and intarsia techniques at Knitter's Review Forums. Ok, so now for the motifs. We have a book we just added to Knitting-Warehouse called, 150 Scandinavian Motifs: The Knitter's Directory. This book includes geometric shapes, birds, flowers, animals and more. You may not find the exact motifs as pictured on the sweater in the movie, but you can find motifs that you can substitute. The motifs in this book are shown as swatches and this book gives you detailed information on how to integrate the motif into your work, which will help us with this project. You may want to consider using the yarn they recommend for the different motifs. However no matter which yarn you use, you will have to knit test swatches with your yarn of choice until you get the correct gauge that is required for the Panini sweater. This is to ensure your Panini sweater ends up the correct size. Here is some advice again from the Knitter's Review Forums on substituting a DK light weight yarn for a worsted weight yarn. When substituting yarn also consider how stretchy the yarn is and how the yarn looks once you figure out your gauge. Here is some information about gauge called, Gauge & Why It Matters. Please make sure to check your gauge before you start. There is nothing worse than putting time and effort in a project and having it come out the wrong size. If you dream of that sweater from "The Jane Austen Book Club", these steps, although not comprehensive, could help you make one for yourself and in your own color choice as well. Good luck and we hope the ground work we have done here can help you in achieving a sweater like this for your very own. Don't forget to visit us at Knitting-Warehouse.com. We are adding new yarn, knitting supplies, crochet supplies and books all the time.