Twist Collective Blog

Designer Process: Sapwood

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Published on Wednesday, 10 October 2012 04:00

Today's post is brought to you by Amy Herzog, and it can also be found on her blog. Her contribution to our most recent issue, the lovely Sapwood henley, is the focus of this post, but Amy has also contributed a number of other lovely designs to our pages. Her garments are always feminine, timeless, easily adapted to different body types and shapes, and cleverly executed.  This sweater has become a staple in Amy's own wardrobe- think about adding it to yours as well!

When the most recent issue of Twist Collective came out, I remembered how much I loved the relaxed design of my sweater in the collection, Sapwood. It may sound weird to remember how much I liked a design, but Sapwood was knit during the utterly crazy last days of the book, when everything was a total blur. I was switching back and forth between my day job to book editing to the photoshoot like a zombie–it’s no wonder my memory was a little on the hazy side!

Sapwood is like gourmet comfort food in sweater form. It’s easygoing and relaxed, with a bit of a tailored edge. It works well dressed up or down, and the sweater’s shaping makes it super flattering and easy to adjust for your body’s quirks. Looking at the pictures, I found myself wanting a Sapwood of my own!

Unfortunately, designers don’t actually get much time to knit sweaters for themselves… …and even less time to knit already-released sweaters for themselves. I’m full up on deadline knitting this fall, in preparation for my book release next spring. So what’s a girl to do?

Well, despite being utterly embarrassed about it, I hired a sample knitter (the wonderful Margaux and gave her modifications for knitting the pattern to my figure. I asked her to knit the pieces, and then did the blocking and finishing myself. The result? I have a brand new sweater that I totally adore.

I’ve worn it both with a nice skirt, for work, and dressed down with jeans and a tank top, like this. I’ve worn it hiking, I’ve worn it driving the kids around. It’s comfortable and easy-peasy and looks great. (The yarn is superwash, too, so it’s even easy care!)

Sapwood contains a buch of my favorite sweater elements to wear. The scoop neck, with a little henley placket, gives me just enough coverage and allows me to use some special vintage buttons:

The back of the sweater is plain, which makes for great reading/tv knitting, but the sleeves include a little lace panel. It’s a pretty touch without being too sweet. And the 3/4-length sleeves are perfect pushing-up length, which is how I always seem to wear my sweaters.

I made my usual modifications to this pattern–lengthened the body by 1”, and added an inch or so of vertical bust darts to the front.This accommodates my longer-than-average torso and gives me room in the bust without drowning my shoulders. They’re worked by working waist increases every other RS row until 5 additional increases have been worked–I decreased those extra sts into the neckline as described in my last post on Trimmings.

All in all, Sapwood has become something of a staple so far this fall. I look forward to many more years of wearing it!