My new favorite sweater

Every time I finish a project, whatever it is becomes my new favorite... whatever, hat, scarf, mittens.  That project becomes the best and I wear it or use it all the time.  My latest finished sweater is no different.  I love it.

This is the GreenGable -hoodie by Mari Muinonen.  It was in the Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting, but if you don't have access to the magazine, the pattern can now be purchased individually from the Vogue Knitting website.    From the minute I saw it in the magazine I wanted to knit it.  The giant cables worked in bulky yarn just seem to pop off the fabric.

I modified the pattern to get rid of the deep v-neck.  I want to be able to wear this in place of a jacket in the early fall/late spring and a giant v-neck would make the sweater less practical as a jacket replacement.  I also left off the hood.  I don't really wear hoods (I have a lot of knit hats) and I didn't want the hood constantly hanging down obscuring the cables on the back.

To get rid of the v-neck I just worked basic raglan decreases for the front of the sweater and worked the decreases as proscribed for the rest of the sweater.  When I got to the directions for where the hood should go, I bound off 12 stitches in the center for the neck, then worked one row with decreases on both sides of the neck.  This gave the neck a tiny bit of shaping, making it lower in the front than the back.  Then I bound off the rest of the stitches.  Next I picked up all the bound off stitches (the bind of was for stability so the neck won't stretch out with wear--this sweater is a bit heavy since it's worked in bulky yarn) and worked 5 rounds of k1tbl, p1 to mimic the twisted rib at the back and the cuffs.  

The yarn is Knit Picks Swish Bulky in a colorway that's been discontinued for about 2 years: Adobo.  I love the rusty orange/brown color.  I know it's not for everyone but to me it screams cozy fall thoughts like hot chocolate and sweaters and mittens and hats and sitting by the heater in flannel jammies.  Swish Bulky is probably one of my favorite Knit Picks yarns.  It's super soft and big and squishy and did I mention soft?  Also it's superwash so it can just be tossed in the washer and dryer (I use the delicate cycles on both) and it comes out looking wonderful.  The yarn does pill, all merino does, but I have a sweater stone and it takes care of them quickly.

This pattern helped me to realize something about myself knitting-wise.  I hate knitting sleeves in the round.  There.  I said it.  Hate them.  I don't mind socks, mittens, other small circumference things but sleeves... hate them.  I also don't mind knitting sleeves flat and seaming them.  There's just something about knitting 30+ inches of small circumference tube that gets under my skin.  I knit this sweater up to the underarm very quickly but then stalled on the sleeves.

Have you seen enough pictures yet?

I've pretty much been wearing this all the time since it came off the needles.  It's so cozy.  I almost don't mind that it's winter and freezing cold outside.