# Beautiful "Ugly" Christmas Sweater



## dollface (Jan 20, 2013)

As all Christmas sweaters seem to be considered "ugly" these days, my DIL asked me to make her a beautiful one. I was planning on basing this on the sweaters in the book "Picture Knits" but my machine persistently refused to follow the punchcard to make the tiny dot pattern that should have adorned the main body of the sweater. So it had to be plain. I made it from a yarn I ordered from China, a blend of cashmere and silk, which felt beautiful knitted up and amazingly looked good with no blocking. Nevertheless, having to create the pattern as I did (because of the punchcard malfunction, a picture pattern not working out and a change in the gauge of the wool), I must have knitted the dratted thing six times over before I got it right. Does anyone else feel like they knit everything more than once before they finish?


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## 29426 (Jul 26, 2011)

this is gorgeous!


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## Hilary4 (Apr 26, 2012)

That is lovely - she looks so happy.


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## arlenecc (Jul 27, 2012)

It is lovely and worth the effort!


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## Naneast (Jun 12, 2011)

Beautiful sweater.. Great job. :sm24:


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## kacey66 (Sep 9, 2013)

Your DIL's sweater is beautiful! Thank you for sharing.


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## fdb123 (Mar 30, 2012)

Beautiful. My own daughters would love it as I'm sure your DIL does. Merry Christmas!


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## LynnPNW (Mar 10, 2016)

Beautiful! Pretty model, too!


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## ChristmasTree (Nov 28, 2011)

It's beautiful, looks like she loves it, it's a great fit.


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## Susan Spencer (Dec 23, 2013)

Your sweater is beautiful! And yes--I usually need to start a project (at least) three times before I really get going on it, having finally figured out all the pattern symbols and what I'm supposed to be doing (as opposed to what I THINK I'm supposed to be doing!) Good job!


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## Gaildh (Jan 15, 2015)

Well done!


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## knitteerli (Jun 3, 2015)

Great job, nothing ugly about that sweater.


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## Mad loch (May 21, 2013)

Beautiful well worth all that extra work ????????


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## jeannesmom (May 27, 2016)

Well worth the effort...it is lovely


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## Linuxgirl (May 25, 2013)

Yes, I most definitely knit a lot of things two or three times until they work out. But this one was certainly worth the effort. Looks good.


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## Cdambro (Dec 30, 2013)

Wow......just beautiful!


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## Peanut Tinker (Oct 10, 2012)

Yes, to your question. LOL! But it is usually well worth it, as shown in your work.


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## molsmum (May 15, 2016)

Lovely sweater.


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## iluvcabernet (Sep 19, 2012)

You did a beautiful job and it looks terrific on her!


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## KarlaHW (Jan 6, 2012)

Yes that is a beautiful Christmas sweater.


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## sharronaw (Jul 12, 2013)

Your sweater turned out beautifully- the picture is so good it could be a magazine cover! Sharron


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## retiredmongoose (Aug 17, 2016)

It looks great without the dots.


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## Tapraol (Mar 15, 2013)

Beautiful sweater!


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## mopa2282 (May 12, 2011)

Beautiful jumper.


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## roseknit (Apr 2, 2011)

That,s not an UGLY Xmas sweater at all, just beautiful. I would wear it throughout the winter not just at Christmas


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## Oma 7 (May 11, 2013)

Grey!


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## Oma 7 (May 11, 2013)

Great!


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## mtnmama67 (Dec 16, 2011)

kacey66 said:


> Your DIL's sweater is beautiful! Thank you for sharing.


Agree - what a lovely sweater AND DIL !!

Could you share whee you bought the yarn? Thanks in advance...


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## GinB (Sep 2, 2012)

Not ugly...beautiful!


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## cynthiaknits (Oct 19, 2011)

Lovely, and I'd wear it all year long. LOVE red.


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## randiejg (Oct 29, 2011)

I think it turned out great.

I can sympathize with you over everything that went wrong. That seems to be happening to me more often these days, and I suspect it's more operator error than machine malfunction. My mind just seems to go here, there, and everywhere instead of concentrating on what I'm doing, and what the next step is.


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## Sheltienut (Aug 13, 2015)

Beautiful sweater. I am so relieved to hear someone else also has false starts! My grandson asked me to knit him a fisherman's rib sweater for Christmas. How difficult could it be? I regularly knit rib so just a few adjustments to the settings I thought. How wrong can you be, first the machine refused to have anything to do with the yarn I wanted to use, then odd stitches were not knitting off on one row then dropping off on the next row. Dropped stitches are almost impossible to retrieve in fisherman's rib I found, so lots of frogging back, loopy sides and I found myself using expletives I didn't even know I knew!! But perseverance paid off and just the neckband to do now, plus I feel confident to do another one now!


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## jckennett (May 6, 2012)

Me too.



mtnmama67 said:


> Agree - what a lovely sweater AND DIL !!
> 
> Could you share whee you bought the yarn? Thanks in advance...


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## Spooly (Oct 22, 2011)

The sweater is beautiful.


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## evelynetricot (Jun 19, 2015)

wonderful sweater and congratulations on you patience!


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## KnittyGritty800 (Apr 1, 2014)

Very nice!!


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## junebjh (Jun 9, 2012)

Beautiful sweater.


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## lac (Sep 29, 2011)

Your sweater is beautiful and you did a great job on it. I often have to do things several time before it comes out right.


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## Peggan (Aug 19, 2016)

This is beautiful. Did I interpret it correctly that you machine knit this? I will have to google knitting machines as I really have no idea how they work. My daughter is asking for a Nordic sweater and this pattern might work well. Thanks for the inspiration.


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## dollface (Jan 20, 2013)

I bought the yarn on eBay. The vendor's name was bonnie7825 and the item number was 331840203097. From that item number I had a selection of colours. It was a reasonable price and had free shipping (it came quickly, too). The yarn was fingering weight, worked up nicely and was nicely soft to the touch - a nice weight to wear inside. The only caution I will add was that the red had some imperfections and/or knots in almost every skein (the white and green were fine). Sewing in more ends than I should have increased the finishing time but it looks fine on the outside. If you don't mind working around that, it's nice yarn. If you buy the same yarn, I'd be interested in how you make out with it.

Thanks for all your kind comments, especially Sharron who said that the picture was good enough for a magazine cover. I will pass that on to my lovely DIL and my DS who no doubt took the photo. He complained I hadn't made a sweater for HIM. Maybe next Christmas. I'm tapped out for this year.



mtnmama67 said:


> Agree - what a lovely sweater AND DIL !!
> 
> Could you share whee you bought the yarn? Thanks in advance...


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## dollface (Jan 20, 2013)

Yes, it was machine knit. And I really did reknit it several times getting it right. Machine knitting makes it easier that way. I had to knit the sleeves twice to get them the right size. The first time they were too short and too tight. It was knit on a Singer 700 with ribber which knits with punchcards allowing you to knit patterns. I simply cannot do fair isle knitting by hand. I am too tense and it always turns out puckered. Machine knitting solves that. I still hand knit, too, but I really love my machines.



Peggan said:


> This is beautiful. Did I interpret it correctly that you machine knit this? I will have to google knitting machines as I really have no idea how they work. My daughter is asking for a Nordic sweater and this pattern might work well. Thanks for the inspiration.


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## 30Knitter (Apr 9, 2012)

Very nice sweater. Currently I've made six tries on an afghan I'm making. Hopefully I'm on my last try.


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## Murray2 (May 5, 2011)

That is a handsome sweater you have here. She looks very pleased wearing it. Good job!


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## llamagenny (Feb 26, 2013)

Very professional looking job of knitting--it was worth the effort.


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## castonkid (Feb 23, 2015)

SHARP!!!


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## Minigo (Aug 30, 2013)

Lovely!


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## CBratt (Dec 6, 2012)

Gorgeous!


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## kwharrod (Jul 24, 2012)

Lovely sweater. From the look on her face, I say you created a real winner!


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## gardenpoet (Jun 24, 2016)

Wow, whatever you did, it looks fantastic!


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## Nanamel14 (Aug 4, 2016)

Very nice


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## Reba1 (Feb 5, 2012)

Beautiful sweater on a very pretty, happy looking model! You did an excellent job.

And yes, I can't even count how many times I've started over, and over, and over...


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## Carla584167 (Dec 15, 2014)

Both the sweater and model is lovely.


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## priscillapaisley (Jul 29, 2015)

The sweater and model are stunning!
Thank you for posting the photograph.


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## irishrose24 (Jun 20, 2013)

Gorgeous sweater complimented with a lovely model! :sm01: :sm24: :sm24:


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## Kathleen's daughter (Jul 31, 2011)

aaw dollface that's perfection and it looks so sqwooshy and luxurious I want to bury my cheeks in it

admire your persistence :sm24:


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## janeknits2 (Feb 20, 2015)

Lovely - and the smile makes all the trouble worth your efforts!


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## KateWood (Apr 30, 2011)

Fabulous winter sweater.


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