I’m super excited to share this knitting project with you because it’s one where I found inspiration through social media and emails from an online store, researched the style and patterns that might work, adapted a pattern, and used up some yarn I’ve had for years to make it. That checked off a lot of boxes for me, plus the fact that I’ve really enjoyed wearing it!
I started seeing this simple Opal Rollneck sweater from Free People everywhere last fall - in my emails and on Instagram. It was so popular they added seasonal colors for Christmas and still offer it in a ton of colors. It’s such a basic pattern, knit with a bulky yarn that would work up fast - I knew I could create something similar for a lot less than almost $100 (for a cotton/acrylic blend, one of the cheapest yarns you can find!).
After looking at a TON of patterns that looked like they could be adapted easily, I settled on The Easy Bulky One. It was oversized with a simple rolled neck edge like the inspiration sweater, but most important it had the dropped shoulder construction with raised seams.
I thought it would be pretty easy to shorten it to the length listed in the online description and to make the sleeves and hem rolled edges instead of ribbed (it was!). The neckline would have to be extended, and in the end that was the one area that didn’t end up turning out like the FP sweater.
I went first to my yarn stash to see if I already had something that would work and I found skeins of Reynolds Rapture, a 50% silk/50% wool discontinued bulky yarn I've had for years that was 14 sts to 4 inches (the pattern calls for a bulky weight yarn at 3-3.5 stitches per inch, 12-14 st. per 4" on 9-11 needles). It’s a wonderfully soft and warm yarn I’ve really wanted to use, but I had only a small amount of skeins in each of three colors, green, brown, and ivory. I knew they all looked good together, but originally I tried to knit this pattern with just the green and ivory stripes (I had more green skeins than the others), but could see after the first wide ivory stripe I wouldn’t have enough (yep, I tore it out - you can’t be afraid of pulling something apart when knitting!). When I added the brown, I knew I’d have enough - but just barely!
Note: The Free People sweater is a cotton blend. Here's an affordable yarn I found that could work: https://herrschners.com/premier-cotton-fair-bulky-yarn/ (52% cotton; 48% acrylic)
The pattern is knit top-down, creating the dropped shoulders before joining to knit the body in the round. I simply eyeballed the stripes, knowing I wanted wide ones (at one point I saw the FP sweater in a wide yellow-and-white stripe so that’s where I got the idea).
The sleeves are also knit in the round and I find the Magic Loop method easier than using double pointed needles, especially with the circular needles and interchangeable tips from Knitpicks.
The neckline wasn’t hard, but in the end just extending it didn’t make it look like the inspiration sweater. I think more of a funnel neck is the look I’d need to go for if I were to make this again.
I used size 10 needles and with the bulky yarn the knitting did go fairly quickly…until I broke my wrist at the end of February! 6 weeks later, I finished this in April and was able to wear it once before it got too hot.
This sweater is fun to wear - it’s so soft from the silk and the wool makes it warm. It drapes nicely and goes with a lot of my clothes. However, I didn’t even notice until I was wearing it that the drop shoulders actually created the look of the first stripe on the sleeves and that’s where I should’ve started the ivory so it would match the body stripes more. Ugh! I’m trying to let it go, but it really does bug me and to be honest, if I had enough yarn I would redo them, but I literally had inches left of most of them. It’s fine…it’s fine.
And I think I’d look for a funnel neck pattern and use that for starting the top to get the no-seam look of the FP sweater. I also think it should be about 3 inches shorter for me- the line hits right at the widest part of my hips, which I usually try to avoid.
In the end, I at least replicated the look of a $98 sweater for $9 - and I’m sure my yarn cost $20-30 dollars when I bought it because that was my limit then for buying sale yarns (from the old Discontinued Brand Name Yarn site - I miss that so much, they had such great quality yarns for cheap!). I think I could easily make it for half price or less with new yarn - and be able to use a better quality yarn like I did for this version.
This was such a fun project to think about, research, make, and wear! As for my next knitted project, I’m close to finishing the body of a tee made with size 2 needles (that you may have seen in my summer creative goals post) and plan to be able to wear that before the weather turns too cold.
