Hibernate

A ver long time ago I bought enough Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky to make the Rosamund's Cardigan from the Fall 2009 Interweave Knits. I couldn't get gauge. Even though the pattern calls for chunky yarn, it's knit at more of a aran gauge, and my fabric was practically bullet proof. So the yarn went back in the stash to wait.

I decided I really did want a sweater/jacket from this lovely rustic wool so I went to Ravelry to hunt up a pattern. I settled on Hibernate by Christina Harris. It's certainly not the most popular pattern on Ravelry (there are only 4 projects) but it had exactly what I wanted. Oversized, styled more like a jacket than a sweater, and in the proper gauge.

At least I thought it was the proper gauge. I was a very irresponsible knitter and did not knit my swatch. The yarn relaxed quite a bit width wise, so my sweater that was supposed to have 4" of positive ease ended up with 8" which turned it from cutely "oversized" to "sack." It's being modeled by my mother in these pictures, and it lives with her now. 

I cut it extremely close on yardage. I knew it would be close and figured I would do the sleeves last and make them 3/4 if I had to (how I thought I would live with a jacket with 3/4 sleeves I don't know...) Luckily, I had just enough to make the sleeves full so crisis averted. This is how much yarn was left over. 

The Rowan yarn is extremely "rustic" there is no way it could be warn next to the skin, which is why I think it's great for this pattern. It has lots of little bits of vegetable matter that was spun into the yarn and, while I didn't notice while I was knitting with it, the yarn is filthy. I washed it after I was done in my laundry machine (didn't use the machine, just filled it up with water and let the sweater soak) and the water was GROSS after the 30 minute soak. See.

The pattern has a few small typos, but overall was very easy to follow and I would recommend it for anyone who already has a little sweater experience under their belt. It's not quite as comprehensive as an absolute sweater beginner might need, but if you were adventurous and willing to look up a technique or two it'd be doable as a first sweater. 

I love the pockets. This particular construction was extremely easy and it would be a fun way to work in a pop of color, because you could do the pocket lining in a fun contrast color. I chose to do mine in some similarly colored Cascade 220 because that was the best option I could find in my stash, but if you planned ahead you could have some fun with it.

I know I say this about every project lately, but despite what my Ravelry account will tell you, this was actually an extremely quick knit. The problem was I just kept getting distracted. I knit big chunks of this in single sessions, but put it on hold over and over. This easily could have been done in two weeks with focus. I'm just really short on focus lately.