That is Shapely Boyfriend by Stefanie Japel from the 2011 Deep Fall issue of knitty. I taught a seamless sweater class on it at For Yarns Sake last spring and worked through it in advance of the class. The class focused on the shaping of the body, so I didn't bother to finish the sleeves before the class. Once the class was over it went into hibernation--hence the 6 months to finish.
The only alteration I made to the pattern was to shorten it. As designed, it's a below-the-bum sweater but I tend not to like that look unless it's a looser coat-style. For something I'm going to wear all day as part of an outfit it prefer waist-length styles. Because I shortened the cardigan I made fewer button holes than called for. Other than that, I knit this exactly to pattern.
The yarn I used is Malabrigo Rios in the colorway Teal Feathers. I did not behave like a good knitter and alternate skeins. If I were teaching I would tell all my students that the must alternate skeins, but in my own personal knitting, I take risks. Luckily my skeins were very well matched and I didn't end up with any striping. I used just under 5 skeins, but if I had made it as long as recommended I would have needed to break into a 6th.
The yarn is super soft and I love that I can just throw it in the washing machine and dryer. The magic of superwash. I love it. The buttons were cheap ones I got a Jo-Anns, but they work really well with the sweater I think. I finished back in August, so it didn't get a lot of wear right off the needles. This past winter it saw a lot of wear though. It's experienced some mild pilling, but nothing surprising for a 100% merino yarn, and nothing my sweater stone can't easily take care of.
My current knitting continues at a snails pace, but I still have a backlog of projects from last year that I can show you.
Well hey, it looks great! No matter how long it took to finish.
ReplyDelete