Storm Sweater by PetiteKnit: Men’s vs. Women’s

In my last blog post, I compared the men’s and women’s Mélange sweater patterns. I am doing the same here, since I found the differences between the two versions of the Storm sweater equally intriguing. I have included figures this time, so hopefully the comparison is even easier to understand, especially for those who do not knit. Here’s a link to the women’s version and men’s version of the Storm sweater.

I went back to my About page and reread Adam Savage’s quote about drawing and how “the ability to take an idea from your own mind and transfer it to the mind of another person is intoxicating.” I have always felt like my drawings are awful, but the more I challenge myself, the better they seem to get. I avoided any diagrams in my Mélange post because I did not feel skilled enough to create the figures. Then I kicked myself and said, “we can do hard things!” and just tried. I am pretty pleased with my efforts, and I hope you enjoy this post and feel motivated to try hard things too.

Style and Fit

Like the Mélange sweater, the Storm Sweater uses the same overall construction in both the men’s and women’s patterns, even though the final fit differs. The sweater is worked from the top down. The back yoke is shaped with short rows, which raises the back neckline and creates the shoulder slope. The shoulders are worked flat and then joined to form the front yoke.

The Storm Sweater has dropped shoulders, meaning the shoulder seam extends past the edge of the shoulder for a relaxed silhouette. The front neckline is lower than the back, creating a classic jewel neckline. Once the yoke is complete, the body and sleeves are worked in the round. The sleeves are picked up and knit from the armholes, resulting in a seamless finish. The neckline is finished with a folded double rib.

Sizing

My bust measures between 39 and 40 inches. I typically knit a size L in PetiteKnit patterns. When I knit the Mélange sweater, I sized up, so I initially did the same for the Storm Sweater. After starting the project, I realized the larger size was not the right choice for me. I frogged and restarted in my usual size L.

Details

The pattern recommends using 800 g of Peer Gynt by Sandnes Garn (50 g = 91 m), which works out to roughly 1,456 m of yarn total. Peer Gynt is 100% Norwegian wool, and I have absolutely no experience with that type of yarn. I still have nightmares of an L.L.Bean wool sweater I owned in the 1990s. It was itchy, scratchy, uncomfortable, and always left me with a runny, stuffed up nose from allergies. Sandnes Garn does have a superwash version of Peer Gynt called Smart, but I still was scared.

I was not ready to commit to an entire sweater made from a yarn I might dislike, or worse, be allergic to. Instead, I chose my preferred alternative from Knitting for Olive and went with Heavy Merino in Dark Ocher. Knitting for Olive Heavy Merino is 100% merino wool (50 g = 125 m).

I would not say the Knitting for Olive yarn and the Sandnes Garn yarn are directly comparable, but they are close enough for this pattern. I ended up using 11.4 donut balls of Knitting for Olive Heavy Merino, which comes to approximately 570 g or 1,425 m of yarn.

Because my yarn choice differed from the recommended yarn, it was important to check gauge throughout the project. The pattern recommends:

• Needles: 4 mm [US6] needles
• Gauge (after washing and blocking): 20 sts x 32 rows = 10 x 10 cm [4 x 4 inches] in texture pattern

I was able to get very close to gauge, but I needed to go down two needle sizes:

• Needles: 3.5 mm [US4] needles
• Gauge (after washing and blocking): 21 sts x 32 rows = 10 x 10 cm [4 x 4 inches] in texture pattern

Men’s vs. Women’s Patterns

Since comparing the men and women’s Melange pattern, I’m curious if the same difference exist with this pattern. Below is a comparison of the Women’s L against the Men’s L, broken down by construction stage.