Molly Ringwald

There are a few garments I admire in Michelle Rose Orne's Inspired To Knit, and having knit Molly Ringwald, I have to say that I'm much more inclined than usual to go out and buy a copy (normally I have to actively want to wear at least half the patterns to buy a book, considering how often I usually end up buying individual patterns online and ignoring my books).

Molly Ringwald is super easy, and super cute. The waist shaping is very sensible, and shined a light on some of the mysteries of shaping (for me, anyway). It may be considered a little tedious by some--all that ribbing, oy--but this was my office project, and so all I noticed was the joy that is knitting with Punta del Este Mericash.

Which seemed to me to be the perfect yarn--I know the pattern calls for a cotton blend, but this is such a clingy/stretchy pattern that I'd be concerned about its longevity in cotton.

One thing though--those sleeves! They were the death of me! I knit them four times. The ruffle at the bust line may be all very well, but on the sleeves it made them way too small. My arms are more than three inches around, and I would hope that most people's are, thank you very much. Whenever I tried to sew down the sleeves after making the ruffle, the armhole was crazy small. Each of my four tries was an experiment in decreasing fewer stitches after increasing for the ruffle, and eventually I gave up and didn't decrease at all--which worked, but it doesn't look very ruffly.

Still, it's very feminine and very practical. I've been trying lately to knit things that I can wear to work, and this one certainly qualifies. (I had to go out and buy a few shirts that I can wear with it, which sort of negates the whole saving-money-on-clothing-by-knitting-clothing thing, but whatever).