Changing Up the Sweet Tee: Pink Worsted Malabrigo
I was explaining to some knitting friends that I made the Sweet Tee by Mary Jane Mucklestone, but that I had changed it by skipping the stranded work, re-sizing it, making it in worsted weight yarn, and adding a large seed-stitch cowl. Which raises a philosophical question: did I really make the Sweet Tee?
What I did was take her directions for a bottom-up yoked sweater and do a recalculation to shift from negative ease (i.e. skin tight) to positive ease as semi-fitted, and from DK weight yarn to worsted yarn. All of which worked out perfectly so far as the fit. I suspect that, as a long-timer dressmaker, I am so used to altering sewing patterns that I am not as intimidated as some newer knitters might be.
The only difficulty came in adding the collar which was based on the Capelet Tank by Cathy Carron which I have made before as a summer top. I had not reckoned with the much greater weight of the collar in a heavier yarn. I will explain how I coped with that later. There were comic moments.
The whole process was so satisfying, despite the stumbles, that I am now eyeing any knitting pattern anew. As the willingness to refit and alter patterns seems to have been far more encouraged in vintage knitting books, this is merely an old tradition revived.
You can find both Sweet Tee and the Capelet Tank on Ravelry which takes only a simple registration to access and is a font of knowledge via the postings by the more thoughtful makers: https://www.ravelry.com/
This yarn was the hand-dyed Malabrigo Rios called Almond Blossom which is a lovely slightly variegated pale pink which you will find here: https://malabrigoyarn.com/yarns/rios










