The Old and The New

I have a favorite old sweater. Actually it is not that old -- only two years. It was one of those "exactly-what-I-wanted!" gifts the Quipper gave me for my birthday. Unfortunately, I chose an item of very poor quality. What I loved most about it was the color scheme and the fit.

To my dismay I found last year that it was becoming threadbare -- already! You can see my hand through the fabric very easily. And the sleeves are full of repaired pulls and more holes left unrepaired. I made a mental note not to buy any chenille yarns. They are soft and pretty with their slight luster, but I was so disappointed with the way this sweater was falling apart.

Now I have a batch of yarn that is not in the same color scheme, but it has a nice luster and it drapes very much like the old beloved garment. I'm talking about leftovers from the Artist's new intarsia sweater. I can't carry off all those colors, but I can a few of them. I'll leave the orange, lime, and hot pink to her! Last night I carefully measured one of the panels of the old sweater, noted my gauge, and made a bunch of calculations and drew a diagram somewhat approximating a pattern. So far, so good:
I do not know how to crochet, so I will leave off the crocheted border at the neckline, hem and side vents. I will also use a mattress stitch to seam the panels and see how it looks before I decide on adding the decorative cross-hatches seen on the original in navy blue.

The original used six colors and I have only four, so another trip to the craft store may be in order. There is a shade they call Mocha that I'm crazy about.

After the new garment is assembled, or mostly assembled, I may investigate knitted on borders. There are tons of them that I have glanced at in books but not even read about yet.