The Lowrider jumper is finally available for you to download! I started designing this jumper well over a year ago, when I was in the middle of writing my book. I love my Granny Go Round jumper, but I'm also a fan of a deep scoop neck, so I wanted to combine the two. But while I was at it, I also wanted to see if I could do away with the shoulder shaping that happens on the Granny Go Round jumper, and place it either side of the raglan increases.
I had so many attempts at this and it took a lot of puzzling over. But if there's one thing I like doing, its trying to solve crochet design challenges! So every time I took a break from my book, I sketched out another form of shaping around the raglan increases, and swatched it. I got bored of swatching in one colour, and started a stripey one, and that's how this version below was born. It ended up with more ease than I wanted, but the colours were so me, that I couldn't abandon it. I actually love it now and wear it loads. It doesn't have the same shaping at the raglans as the Lowrider, but you'd never know unless you looked up close.
If you want to make one like this you can go up a size, but what I'd actually suggest is to make your normal size, but just add more row(s) to the end of the yoke until you have the fit and ease you're after. Every row adds 2 groups to the body and one on each sleeve. Your sleeve will then start with one or more groups than your size states, but chances are, the next size up will start with that amount of groups too, so you can just follow that size for the sleeves. The great thing about top down patterns is the sleeve and body length are totally customisable as you can try it on as you go.
So finally I settled on the style of increases and the fit that I wanted, and set out making the final sample. However, me being me, in the meantime I got bored and started a red one - with the aim of making it slightly Christmassy. But that didn't work out and I then put granny squares around the hem, but that made it stiff and you know I like to tuck a bit of my jumper into my jeans - well it was too rigid for that, so I ditched it. I LOVED the granny squares through, and was determined to build them in somewhere. I started watching Daisy Jones and the Six around this time, and the 70's inspo hit me - I'd do flared sleeves. It worked out perfectly and I am so pleased I persevered with this. Don't get me wrong, the flared sleeves are not that practical for washing up, but if you're off to a festival this summer and want something that's fun and on trend when you're waving your arms around to your favourite band, she's your girl.
And for the rest of the year - there's the tapered sleeve version :-) I hope you love it as much as I do. Just make sure to check your tension, especially stitch height, otherwise you may end up with a lower neck than you expected. I do have another idea for a new style of sleeve (damn, I love options!) - but that's a blog post for next winter. Please tag me on Insta @iron_lamb and use #Lowriderjumper if you make one - I'd love to see which you go for! x
The Lowrider jumper can be downloaded here.