Jill Delgado's “Un-Zen” Sweater

This is Jill's take on the “Zen” sweater that has been all the rage on the Ample-Knitters list in the summer of 2001. The pattern was designed by Gaby Monson of The Yarn Lady in Laguna Hills, California. You can purchase this pattern directly from the Yarn Lady's website. The Yarn Lady also sells Berroco Zen, the cotton/nylon ribbon yarn Gaby originally used for this design.

Jill did her “Un-Zen” in the round, adding sleeves and using Berroco's Linet and Metalica yarns. She writes, “I'm very happy with the way it turned out and it is soooo comfortable to wear.”

Jill's Modifications:

When I saw Gabriele Monson's Zen sweater, it seemed to light a fire in me. I had some Berroco Linet and some Berroco Metalica that I had been “saving” for something special, and this sweater looked like the answer. As I started playing with a swatch, I decided I wanted to do the pattern in the round, so, using the rib pattern, away I went. Worked up to the armholes, then divided and did front and back. I wanted sleeves, so after joining the shoulder seams, I picked up around the armhole and continued in the rib pattern, working 1 short row in each “section” of the ribbing and in each garter stitch band.

I worked the rib in the Linet and the garter band in the Metalica. This is the first time I've ever just started knitting without a pattern or at least a chart I had calculated. This rib is sooo soft and sooo stretchy and sooo pretty, that my sweater fits like a dream. And two of my “less ample” friends have already asked to borrow it. It seems to fit everyone.

Thanks Gabriele, I never would have done something so daring without your pattern to inspire me.