Just like everyone else, I love a bargain. I found this great sweater, without embroidery, marked down from $48 to $9.  I knew the addition of an embroidery design would take it from plain to pretty.
The lacy knit sleeves make it cool enough for Florida weather and yet, with a green or purple shirt under it, it is warm enough for our few cool days.
In my experience, the key to successful embroidery on sweaters is to stabilize it properly. Connie Palmer, a well-known designer and traveling teacher   is a master of sewing on knits and recommends the application of an iron-on fusible knit stabilizer.  This is applied with the stretch of the fusible going opposite to the stretch of the sweater or other knit garment.  Because this design is very stitch intensive, I used UltraSolvy in the hoop. Then I used a spray adhesive to hold the sweater in place while I basted it to the UltraSolvy.
With some deep purple slacks in mind, I chose these grapes from KO Designs Wine Grapes collection at.  I had purchased this collection to make ultrasuede wine bags for gifts and they sewed out beautifully. So with some careful editing to join several of the designs into one, I was able to stitch this in the largest hoop for my Brother ULT 2003D. With the larger hoop on the Duetta, it would have been much less trouble to combine the designs.
I’m so grateful to Connie for developing and sharing this technique. Since using her method, I have had 100%  success on all knits, from tee shirts to heavy sweaters.
