Finish-or-Frog-It #8: Ranunculus

The Ranunculus sweater is an incredibly popular pattern. There are over 27,000 projects for this pattern on Ravelry, which amazes me, given that the main photos show the models wearing the sweater incredibly oversized. I understand that this is a style choice, but I would expect it to have limited appeal because of that. Instead, it seems that there was a Ranunculus everywhere I looked when I reached the point of feeling like I might be getting close to ready to try my hand at knitting a sweater.

This sweater is knitted top-down with some lace and texture in the yoke. The real magic seems to be that you can use any weight of yarn, and the pattern is worked with size 10 (6.0 mm) needles. The yarn weight determines how much structure or transparency the sweater will have. There are two collar choices, and the pattern gives options for sleeve length and style and overall body length.

Once again, I turned to the amazing Rebecca from Sun Dragon Tips & Tricks. Her channel has a series of videos that provide guidance on various aspects of this pattern, without giving away the pattern details. It’s a fine balance, and Rebecca does a wonderful job.

For the yarn, I chose a variegated colorway called Beach House from Sewrella Yarns on their DK base. I believe this is from their Summer 2024 collection.

I have finished the yoke and split for the sleeves, so I’m not in a section that’s just mindless stockinette in the round until I reach my desired length before I add the bottom ribbing and move on to the sleeves.

Being my first sweater, it’s far from perfect. And there’s not much call for sweaters this heavy living here in central Florida. But wanting to make gorgeous sweaters like my Auntie Alice used to is my primary reason for wanting to learn to knit. This is my first sweater, and I will cherish it, even if I rarely wear it. This one is absolutely going to be finished.

Talk soon, Eileen