Daughter of Redouté Roses | Jenjoyce Design

If you’ve been following this series, you’ll know that Adélaïde was the name of the historic botanical artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté , and about whom I posted previously, and her story is that she grew up to be a painter in her own right, just as her father. When I finished the daughter variation of the pattern in the beginning of December, knowing I wanted my niece to model it, I put it in a drawer and it has been waiting to be properly photographed. Well amidst the Christmas flurry of plans, the moment arose with the timing of perfection; the moment when my niece was free, home on her winter break from university, and the moment where the steady forecast of rain cleared for the afternoon, so we got in our cars and shot from opposite ends of the Mayacamas range, toward the castle, the approximate halfway point between, and nailed a perfect photo shoot in a very short time. The sweater is quite small, knit and designed for a young girl of eleven, and barely able to be worn by my niece, who is now a seemingly tall woman of twenty . . . but as the art gods are always on our side it seems, with a little tugging adjustments on the sweater between shots, we managed to wonderfully stage Adélaïde, the Daughter of Redouté Roses for its unveiling. Very pleased am I to see the lovely botanical motifs captured with the stone of the castle, the best place ever to show off the knitted things, and I’m so grateful for the beautiful spontaneous moments shared with my niece!

Celebrating my finish of Daughter of Redouté Roses, and having a Turkish coffee!

A “mini me” you could say, to the beautiful mother design Redouté Roses . . . or perhaps better described as “a daughter”. Born out of necessity, or, just because I wanted every mother and daughter duo to be able to wear one together, or, because I really do think the slim-fit version of this big oversized sweater would be amazing too. I think I shall hand this one over to Jeff’s grand-daughter who is eleven, but also, I could knit one in a thicker worsted-weight to fit me, and which I very much plan to do!

Technically speaking, the Daughter is a smaller variation of the original, having only 9 repeats of the rose chart in the yoke, instead of 12 like the original, and the colorwork motifs have been redrawn to make a shorter yoke also, as well as far fewer stitches in the body and sleeves. Also I drew a special rose border chart that is smaller, and rather darling too. Otherwise, the construction exactly as the original, and I’ve included my signature gauge substitution chart with the pattern, so that more sizes can be made from child to adult.

Now, brace yourself for a coincidence, but with a tiny bit of research since finishing the sweater yesterday, I have discovered that the namesake of the design — Pierre-Joseph Redouté — actually did have a daughter! Indeed, so this two-pattern download is a now a complete tribute to Pierre-Joseph Redouté . . . AND. . . his only child, a daughter, whom he very affectionately called Adélaïde.