Glow Up!: the story behind its shoulders and drape
Gently offset shoulders, a boat neckline and texture that fades into the sleeve: a closer look at how Glow Up! is constructed and what gives the sweater its soft drape.
· 4 min read
There’s one detail of Glow Up! I’d like to tell you a little more about: its shoulders. In the photos, you can see a soft sweater, a wide neckline and a gently offset silhouette. That movement comes from its construction. So let’s take a closer look at what’s happening beneath the mohair halo.
What difference does a dropped shoulder make?
In a dropped-shoulder construction, the upper body of the sweater extends beyond the tip of your shoulder. The sleeve therefore begins further down your arm. That extra width contributes to the sweater’s relaxed silhouette, giving the fabric room around your upper body.
With Glow Up!, the two shoulders are also slightly offset: one is longer than the other. Together with a deliberately wide, shallow boat neckline, this asymmetry allows the sweater to slip gently over the shoulders. That little movement is part of its character.
I like the idea of a garment that moves with the body, whose shape reveals itself as you move. The asymmetry is subtle; it doesn’t need to be immediately obvious to make a difference.
It all begins at the upper back
Glow Up! is knitted from the top down. You begin with the back, worked flat. German short rows shape the shoulders.
Short rows add rows over only some of the stitches. By turning before you reach the full width of the work, you give certain areas more height than others. It’s a way of gradually knitting a slope into the fabric.
The fronts are then worked separately before being joined. Later, the work is joined in the round for the body. The top of the sweater takes shape in stages: back, shoulders, fronts, then body. This sequence starts shaping the garment from its very first sections.
The texture follows the shoulder
The textured panel follows the longer shoulder before gradually fading into the sleeve. Its placement echoes the offset construction, drawing the eye along that line from the shoulder towards the arm.
It’s a detail you notice more when you look closely. The mohair keeps its edges soft. The texture emerges among the stitches, while the halo blurs the lines and softens the contrasts.
The yarn has a part to play in the drape
For Glow Up!, one strand of Alix and one strand of Soyeux mohair from La Bien Aimée are held together throughout. For the sample, I paired the Glow Up and Pretty In Pink colourways. The halo is part of the finished effect: it softens both the texture and the colours.
The fabric matters when you’re aiming for this soft drape. If you choose different yarns, take time to look at your swatch after washing and blocking. Check its measurements, but handle it too: is it supple? How does it fold? A firmer fabric will give the same shoulder shaping a different feel.
The pattern gauge is 22 stitches and 30 rows over 10 cm / approximately 4 inches in stockinette stitch, after washing and blocking. Both measurements matter if you want to achieve the intended proportions, in width as well as height.
Room to move
Glow Up! comes in 16 sizes, with approximately 20 cm / 8 inches of recommended positive ease. This means the finished sweater’s bust circumference is intended to be about 20 cm larger than your own bust measurement. The sample is shown in size 9 with this amount of ease.
That extra room contributes to the way the shoulders drape. To choose your size, compare your bust measurement with the finished garment measurements. Choosing a closer or looser fit will also change how the top of the sweater sits on you.
And the name, Glow Up!?
Glow Up is first of all the name of the colourway I fell in love with at La Bien Aimée’s Pop Up. It’s also a nod to my daughter, who made me love the expression. To me, it suggests a gentle transformation through light, movement and texture.
This sweater tells a little of that story: a shoulder line that shifts, a texture that fades into the sleeve, colours wrapped in mohair. Small details that work together to give the garment its character.
What draws you to a sweater first: its colour, its yarn or its construction? I’d love to know what you noticed first about Glow Up!
The Glow Up! pattern is available in French, English, Spanish and German. You’ll find more photos and pattern details on its page in the catalogue.
With love, Marianne
