Introducing: The Alpine Christmas Jumper
I’ve been sharing lots on Instagram about my latest design - The Alpine Christmas Jumper - but it deserves a place here too, so that I can tell you all about it as well as my wonderful group of testers that helped it all come to life for me.
A little later than planned (thanks to a busy Christmas and one illness after the other!), but here it is… my first raglan design, my first jumper and my first Christmas pattern too!
The inspiration behind the idea
In the lead up to Christmas I was reading a lot about some of the statistics around how many people buy new Christmas jumpers every year and how many, as a result, throw their old jumpers away. It’s a lot in case you were wondering.
Many people only wear their Christmas jumpers once before throwing it away; buying themselves a new jumper every year.
This unsustainable demand for novelty creates an unthinkable amount of waste and pollution. Retailers have been producing a growing variety of jumpers every year, many of which will end up in landfill. So to offer a solution to this problem I came up with a Christmas Jumper of my own - one which can be cherished each year, and can be customised to add novelty.
It’s a simple and chic design that can be worn over and over again (it doesn’t even have to be a festive jumper necessarily), but if you wanted to change it up every year you could add your own embellishments to the tree with removable appliques, or Christmas trinkets.
This year I kept it simple (as time was an issue), but each year the tree could get a brand new Christmas identity - and it’ll be fun coming up with ideas of how to personalise it. Next time definitely calls for a star on top of the tree!
Pictured top left: Anne @onlyasbrave
When you make something with your own two hands you are much more invested in that item. The time and energy you put into it makes you really appreciate the value (and adds a special magic to it too) so throwing it away after one use it just not an option.
You also have the option to use luxury yarns, or more sustainable fibres as the vast majority of Christmas jumpers I’ve found in the shops are made with cheap (and polluting) materials.
For mine, I used ‘The Petite Wool’ from We are Knitters* (scroll down to the bottom of this post for a £10 discount code) in ‘natural’ and ‘olive’. I would highly recommend this wool as it was such a delight to work with - so soft! Wool is also super warm and breathable.
Pictured top left: Ger @handcraftedbyger
Pictured top right: Corina @rivers.of.yarn
My wonderful testers did an amazing job for me, managing to whip up their Christmas jumpers in no time at all!
Pictured above left: Malena @mana_buckethat
Pictured above right: Aleksandra @loopyloopscrochet
Thanks to the chunky yarn and raglan style, this jumper works up pretty quickly. the tree design, colour changes and textured sleeves also make this an interesting, yet simple make for the intermediate crocheter.
I’ve already had people asking if I’m going to release a plain version without the tree design, and I think it is a definite “yes…at some point”. So watch this space.
Until then, this festive or just simple winter-cosy jumper pattern is available to buy over on my webshop, Etsy and Ribblr pages.
If you’d like £10 off your ‘We Are Knitters’ order then use the code: MGMUAGTB5 at checkout (please be aware that I will also receive £10 off my next order - win win!).