NJStacie: FO: Coffeehouse Pullover

Months ago, I was lucky enough to get on the special order list for Southern Cross Fibre. I knew for sure that I wanted to make a colorwork *something*, but I wasn't certain of just what. I toyed with the idea of a little bit of EVERY color from the Spring/Summer 2012 Semi-solids collection, then narrowed it down to something like 8 different 2-color combinations. In the end, I decided on "Java" and "Silver Sconce" on Shetland.

I set out to spin yarn that as similar in hand to Jamieson's Shetland 2-Ply - I had been eying the Schoolhouse Pullover by Meg Swansen in the book "Knitting in America" for YEARS. This seemed to be just the right time - and yarn! - for it. Adding to that, I had a wedding anniversary right around the corner. I decided that I'd make this for D as an anniversary present.

The pattern calls for a purl-when-you-can border, but I read that many people still had the lower edge curling. I opted for a turned cuff, and decided to sneak in a little bit of personalization on that edge - I put D's name, my name, the year knit, etc.

The body of the sweater went quite quickly. The patterns are easily memorized, and the whole thing is knit in the round. When it came time to steek the armholes for the sleeves, I decided to work a crochet steek and to pick up and begin knitting the sleeves down BEFORE cutting the steek. This was just a little bit of insurance to make sure the stitches wouldn't pull out from the strain of picking up stitches. Things slowed down a bit on the sleeves knitting, as it became very hot and humid here (once again, ugh) and at this point I had to have the entire sweater on my lap while working on it. There is an I-cord detail worked along the top of each of the sleeves, and the decrease shaping is ingeniously worked under it.

The collar gave me a bit of trouble - it turned out to be quite boat-necky, even with my having made it smaller in the knitting. I knew D wouldn't wear it if it was too wide. I worked an I-cord bind-off, and then picked up inside of that to work a turned hem mitered collar. I think the double bind-offs around the neck give it some much-needed structure and shape.