The Villanelle Sweater

… or to be exact, it’s the Lace Sweater “Villanelle” by Olga Grishina. Maybe I’m reading into things by assuming this was designed with Killing Eve’s Villanelle character in mind but who would name a sweater Villanelle otherwise? I’m guessing you are also here for the TV-inspired knitwear, so I have all of the details about my inspo, materials, and pattern sizing.

Indulging My TV Knits Obsession

I found this pattern by trolling Ravelry looking for Killing Eve-inspired knits. I had seen Villanelle’s character wearing several things I thought I’d like to recreate just for funzies, and I wondered if anyone else had already done that. This was the only pattern I found and I fell in love with it.

It makes me think of the scene in Season 1 where Villanelle confronts Nico at his job. Olga styled her version with a similar classic preppy menswear look for the pattern.

It Had to Be Wearable in Texas

I was very invested in this, so I needed a version that would allow me maximum wear in my warm climate. My first thought was to order Berroco Remix Light because it has a satisfying, nubby texture that says “classic wool sweater” while being a lightweight cotton, nylon, and acrylic blend. You might see this as a summer-weight knit. It’s more Fall for me.

After a short wait, I received my yarn and started the somewhat intricate lace and cabled pattern.

Why Do I Pick Technical Knits At the Worst Times?

When I say it is somewhat intricate, I mean it. Nothing in this design is difficult, however, there is a lot of stitch variety, creating a hefty little booklet of a pattern to keep it all together. Meanwhile, we were planning a move across the state and life was a bit tousled. As crazy as it sounds, I craved the focus the lace and cabling would require.

Big life decisions are often accompanied by technical knitting projects. In this state of uncertainty, I knit the whole body, attached the first sleeve, and also knit some of the second sleeve before packing up to move.

Fast forward to what must have been a year later when I realized I had not finished my sweater and needed to wear it immediately. (A new season of Killing Eve had probably come out, plus a new KAL had reminded me.)

Rediscovered With Sleevetember

Poor Villanelle had been abandoned and it took the Laura and Allyson Party Sleevetember Knit-along to remind me that I had more than a couple of sweaters, floating around sleeveless. A quick scan of my Ravelry Projects (Ah, I remember when my projects pages was neat and up to date with photos and notes on everything. Sigh.) reminded me of my Villainelle and I entered it in the knit-along.

I’d finished the nesting stage that follows a move: drawer pulls attached, walls painted, and most of our stuff was organized (with the exception of the yarn closet) so why not dig around for my precious TV Knit? When prepping for Sleevetember Knit Night, I fished it out of a buried bag, I realized I had actually finished all of the pieces already and it only needed a neckband and some seaming. Why on Earth did I leave it there for so long?!

I love it when something is actually much easier than I assumed. For such a sampler of stitch patterns, the seaming was straightforward and simple. It was like a housewarming gift from myself.

Let’s Get to the Details

Some thing fellow knitters may be interested in is the amount of ease I planned into my sweater. This sweater has only two sizes (49″ and 56.5″). You could easily add more stitch patterning to the sides or center to create a larger sweater, but few of us really want to pay for a pattern, then have to do that. I chose to knit a size small. I kind of wish I’d just done a large. I opted for smaller thinking 10″ – 11″ of ease is normal for me. Though I love it, as is, I do feel like I’d like the extra ease of the large, though.

The armhole sizes were 15″ and 17.5.” Keep in mind it is a drop-shoulder fit. That would give me a bicep fit of 15″, but I think I actually knit size large sleeves and sewed them to the body instead because they are about 17″ around.

Sadly, I didn’t take better notes on what I was doing in the chaotic time I worked on it. Just keep in mind that mix-and-match sizes for the body and sleeves may be a trick you want to try. It makes much more sense than trying to modify the size small to have a larger armhole.

As for Olga’s other designs, there are so many I like. Her Lui Vest makes me think of my 90s sweater fixation, where I went hunting for 90s v-neck sweater inspiration. The ones I’d most like to make are Jumper Sailor and her Jumper “Pia.” One of these days when I’m ready to tackle cotton or linen again, I’d also like to have a Top “Bona.” Aymara looks a lot like another Villanelle screenshot I used as inspiration for this knit.

What Famous Knits are you planning? Join me on my Youtube channel as I run through some TV Knits of years past and my future famous knitting plans! I am definitely encouraging chat in my Ravelry group as project links are so easy to do there, but you can also comment here, email me, DM me, or comment on any YouTube episode where I talk about these projects. I want company in this endeavor, lol.

I talked more about this knit in my Episode 59: Some Sleeves and Some Sleeveless and Episode 79: Really, It’s a Sock. But I usually save the full scoop for the blog and my Ravelry page. If you’re here, you are probably an equally obsessed knitter who still sees knitting blogs as nourishment … or you’re a stalker.

P.S. Friends, and stalkers, we can’t let those knitting blogs die out.