That pic up top is my friend/colleague Cara wearing a little jacket I haven’t been able to get out of my head since I saw the photo long before I knew her. It had been designed by Hackwith Design House for my fellow Nashville small-biz owner Goodwin, and was out of my price range. I keep going back to this image thinking what a useful little thing that could be for much of year here, and it would not be hard to recreate in linen or something, but then you know when it’s summer and you long for that feeling of a sweater knit on your skin? So I’ve been pondering the possibility of a sweater equivalent in a linen-cotton blend or something. Knitting pattern designer Elizabeth Smith seems to be feeling a similar vibe with these two patterns of hers: 1979 (lower left) and Layla (lower right), which could just as easily be single-color stockinette. Either one would be a good jumping off point for a summer jacket like this.

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PREVIOUSLY in Idea Log: Everyday vest (now in progress)

I mentioned in my Queue Check last week that I only expect to knit one more sweater this year, and I really want to get it right, in terms of feeding what I’m yearning for while also filling a legitimate gap in my sweater collection, which means a non-wool pullover, and I’m really really really wanting navy. A feeling that was compounded yesterday by seeing (once again) that pic of Sofia Coppola in her perfectly plain navy sweater on my forever mood board. But the sweater I can’t get out of my head is Michele Wang’s Charles, which I’ve gone on about how many times since it published last year? That fixation is meaningful, and I want to heed it, and while I can make a case for adding an aran-weight wool turtleneck to my closet to replace the sad old storebought one currently playing that role, it’s by no means by most pressing need at the moment. Do you know about L’Envers? It’s a small-batch sweater company in France — a wonderful slow-fashion brand worth knowing about — and if I weren’t a knitter, they’d be getting some of my money. (They might anyway, at some point.) The other day on Instagram, they posted a sweater that brought ol’ Charles to mind again, their Jane & Serge jumper. Although I like it even better in ivory, I’ve well established that I do not need any more ivory sweaters! So I’m thinking about knitting Charles at a lighter gauge, scaling down the silhouette to more like my aran-gansey (not nearly as long as the L’Envers one), and knitting it in a blend of some kind.

This is the always challenge for me: What I enjoy knitting is more fanciful, shall we say, than what I enjoy wearing, but I think this idea would satisfy both. Still, I’m not quite ready to commit. It could be another fisherman sweater in navy, which would also be Sofia approved, if you know what I mean, or a navy version of my aran-gansey, or a navy-and-black marlisle sweater, which I’m also never not thinking about. But I need to find the perfect yarn: dk or light worsted weight, a nice deep dark navy, and not 100% wool. Which is even harder than just finding a nice deep dark navy wool, which is hard enough. (A vexation for many of us, I know, and I’ve promised a roundup!) If you have yarn suggestions that meet all of those criteria, please let me know! I’ve got a decision to make.

(And a ball of Navia Bummull headed my way for a round of speed dating …)

p.s. If you’re wondering, I promise I’ll have Marlisle KAL prize winners for you very soon! 

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PREVIOUSLY in Idea Log: Carbeth coat

As I’m knitting this heather-grey sleeveless sweater vest thingy, and temps are hovering blissfully in the 50s and 60s, I have a conversation with myself every single day about whether I should put sleeves on it. It’s beyond well-established that a cotton-blend, grey, everyday pullover is a garment my closet would benefit from tremendously. But I really want the sleeveless thing! So the conversation ends each day with me reminding other me about this other pullover I mean to knit, sketched up top.

It’s been in my head since the day I got my hands on Anna Maltz’s brilliant Marlisle book, and it’s sort of a cross between the adorable hat pictured above (Hozkwoz) and a beloved 10-yr-old J.Crew cardigan I auctioned off last October, pictured last above. That cardigan was an all-time favorite of mine — a tiny fair isle pattern used float-side-out, with a 3- or 4-stitch wide stripe at the seams, forming strong style lines. So what I’m planning here is a simple raglan marl pullover using non-marl stripes at the raglans, side seams and running down the sleeves, similar in many ways to Anna’s Humboldt sweater, now that I think about it. And perhaps the fabric will be akin to my grey marl, but this time predominantly ivory with light grey for the marl?

This is almost certainly one of my Summer of Basics garments this time around.

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PREVIOUSLY in Idea Log: Not quite harem pants