There’s a thought experiment that has occurred to me in the past concerning whether or not we have exhausted all of the articles of clothing there are to make. Once you get past the basic retinue of shirt, pants, shoes, socks, i.e. all the words you learn in high school language class, you can probably continue to name more specific-to-obscure items describing different variations on top, pants, shoes, socks — turtleneck, corduroys, ankle socks, Mary Janes. Menswear certainly gets the short end of the stick here in terms of possible variations: e.g. swimsuits for men, where the options are swim trunk or speedo vs. bikinis, tankinis, one pieces, monokinis etc. etc., not to mention swimsuit-specific accessory combinations like body jewelry and coverups for women. Even with more variations and types of clothing for us, it is rare to come across an article you’ve never seen before.
Enter: slipovers. The knitting among us know that PetiteKnit is the Alix Earle of the knitting world. Everyone is using PetiteKnit patterns, and for good reason! They are well-written, frequently released, and versatile. I get if you are a person who, if they are going to spend the time making something, wants it to look one-of-a-kind. Have fun in colorwork hell, I say with all the love in my heart! (And don’t worry: the Anemone Sweater is lingering in my Ravelry queue) Frequently, Mette of PetiteKnit will publish multiple versions of a knitted object — pullover sweater, cardigan, and then men’s and/or children’s versions — that are all grouped under the same pattern name. One of those versions is oftentimes a slipover:
Do you see what I mean? Perhaps you would just call this a sweater vest, but in my mind at least a vest has to be shorter, and the width of the shoulder is smaller. It’s kind of just a sleeveless sweater? In any case, maybe slipovers are more common in cold Nordic countries, but I was intrigued as to how one would practically style and wear one. Living in a place where there’s snow on the ground ~5 months out of the year, it seemed potentially doable.
Then I watched Anatomy of a Fall. If there are by some chance any French legal experts reading this, I would love to hear what you think about that movie! Anyways, when the woman who interviews Sandra Hüller at the beginning of the movie takes the stand, she is wearing, you guessed it:
Maybe I was just excited about Anatomy of a Fall, but seeing the slipover on a breathing person committed me to try making one. If anything, it seems like the most comfortable way to wear a long-sleeve tee — why is it that a basic short-sleeved tee is infinitely wearable and a basic long-sleeve suggests NPC? I chose the Lulu Slipover by PetiteKnit:
Cute, right?? At least until I realized that there is no knitting in the round section. This is getting in the weeds for the non-knitters, so I will try to briefly explain. Usually when knitting a sweater, you start at the shoulders, knit the front and the back up to the armpits, and then join at the armpit to begin knitting the body of the sweater in the round. This is the downhill section, the Promised Land, when you can basically knit on autopilot. Before you get to the joining of the rounds, you alternate rows knitting and purling, the latter of which is less ergonomic for most people resulting in difficulties maintaining tension. Since this slipover never actually joins seamlessly under the armpits, it may sound silly but it’s just a little bit of a mental hurdle to have to knit AND purl throughout the entire project.
I am close to having finished the back panel of the Lulu slipover, and I think it has been a good one for practicing maintaining tension when purling — and having patience with even being asked to purl this much in the first place since I know I don’t have to make sleeves afterwards! I chose Knitting for Olive’s Heavy Merino in Brown Bear for this project since I was able to pick it out in person when I was in Copenhagen. Practicing maintaining tension honestly hasn’t been too bad, since this colorway feels comparably pretty coarse and grippy compared to other colors I’ve used, probably due to how saturated the dye is.
Since I will probably finish this slipover and then not be able to really wear it until fall, I have also started the Cloud Top by PetiteKnit using some bamboo yarn (just from Joann’s/Michael’s) that I unraveled from a different, unsatisfactory knitted tank top I made last year as a summer knitting project. Since this yarn is so much more slippery, you can really see the difference in tension before I joined in the round that I was talking about above. I’m also not really vibing with the color now and so I’m contemplating just dyeing it black? Theoretically since bamboo is a natural fiber, I’m thinking some regular black Rit should do the trick, but I’ll keep y’all posted.
Okay, that’s all for now! I know I had to make myself stop refreshing Twitter this week, so I just want to acknowledge that it’s been doom-scrolly and difficult and I hope that everyone reading this is taking care of themselves 🫶