A hand-knit peasant blouse inspired by a skirt of Frida Kahlo’s (see photos), the first in a series of Frida-inspired patterns. Along with being a brilliant artist, Frida was a style icon and this aspect of her has not yet been fully appreciated. I hope to contribute with my hand-knit homage to her personal style.

This peasant blouse sweater is a raglan, knitted top-down, in the round, in one piece. The ribbed neckband is knitted first, then the stitches are divided for the front, back and sleeves. The shape is extremely simple. In fact, there is no shaping at all, making this a great first stranded colorwork pattern or a first top-down pattern.

At the beginning and end of the stranded colorwork, there are four rows where you’ll be stranding all three colors, but for the bulk of it, you’re only stranding two. The colorwork is a simple, enjoyable, 8-stitch repeat.

The neck opening is made oversized, then pulled in as much or as little as you want after the sweater is finished using a twisted cord tie.

Being a peasant blouse, the sweater is designed with a lot of positive ease, and the three sizes available (S/M, L/XL and 1X/2X) accommodate a wide array of sizes (44, 55, 64 inch finished body circumference, respectively). The sweater shown in the pictures is an L/XL (55 inches around) modeled on an actual 43-inch bust.