I finished this sweater on Inauguration Day, January 21, 2009. Since it is also my first published design, I named it the “Inaugural Sweater”. It is knit seamlessly from the top-down with raglan shaping, and is meant to be worn with 0-1” of negative ease at the bust and 2”-3” of negative ease at the hips (this is to allow the garment to “open up” at the hips in a bit of an A-line fashion). Knitters wishing to have more ease at the hips can simply omit many (or all) of the decrease rows below the waist.

Change in needle size recommendation: When I first knit Inaugural, I was having trouble with my hands (thankfully, it was not carpal tunnel!) and was knitting very, very loosely, and needed to use a much smaller needle. Since then, my hands have improved significantly, and while I’m by no means a tight knitter, I reach for a size 6 (4 mm) needle when working with Malabrigo Worsted. I have amended the pattern recommend a size 6 (4 mm) needle, but please use whatever needle that you need to reach the proper (blocked) gauge.