Choices, choices

I took longer to pick out this next project than I have in a long time. It wasn't because I had a hard time finding something I wanted to make. There was almost too much. And since I am making an effort to limit my projects on the needles, I knew that the decision was a careful one. I am aching to make spring and summer projects, but when it came time to "put away the wool for the summer," I just wasn't ready. I also figured the temperatures this time of year in San Diego fluctuates quite a bit from day to day and even from day to night, so I may even get a bit of wear time still this season. If nothing else, I can wear wool all year inside my office. (The thought of which makes me sad.)

I had three sweaters worth of wool that were fairly recently acquired (two of which at Stitches this year, Blue Moon Twisted and Brooksfarm Solana), and to be honest, they were still sitting in bags on my bedroom waiting to be put away properly. I figured might as well use one of those and save me having to actually find a home for it. What made this selection process a little more challenging is that for whatever reason, these recent acquisitions are fairly busy. All three are wools with various "stuff" going on. I LOVE simple colors and plain wool. BUT I also like fun colors and clearly color has been on my mind lately.

I decided that a simple pattern that shows off the yarn was in order. I narrowed the yarns down to two choices because I want to save my Brooksfarm yarn for an Hourglass and I'm afraid that won't get done in time before summer is really here and I lose all motivation for wool. I ended up picking the third yarn, Classic Elite Beatrice that I picked up at Lori's in Alpine for 1/2 off. The yarn in 100% merino in a fairly busy combination of three strands of 4-ply variegated yarn, plied together. Now, I don't think I normally would have liked this yarn or even payed much attention to it. But one of the two colors Lori had on sale really spoke to me. It is #3272 (WEBS calls is Hedgerow but it is a really bad picture of the colors) and in real life it has a really nice combination of cool and warm colors. At the time, I thought it would make a great cardigan or pull-over that would go with almost anything. So what to make?


You know how when you know you've seen something but when you go looking for it, you can't find it? That's what looking for this pattern was like. I wanted a simple v-neck pull over that was fitted. Almost everything I found (which must say something to my normal taste in patterns) would just get lost in this yarn. I wanted something that would look really nice but let the yarn speak for itself. I also knew that I could work up the pattern myself, but I wanted something that I didn't have to think much about since all of that energy is going into my design sweater at the moment. And then it clicked: The Cozy V-Neck Pullover from Stefanie Japel's Fitted Knits.

I have always loved Stefanie's patterns and have made more of her designs than from any other designer. I was anxious to knit something from the book (although there will be many because I think the book is great) and thought her simple v-neck would be a great choice for this project. The only thing is that I really want a deeper v in my v neck, so I'm making one! So far I've been working the v-neck increases over more rows that the pattern calls for and I am also going to put a thiner neck band on when I'm all done.

It's coming along very quickly and I'm almost to the point where I can take the arms off the needles. This has been great knit group knitting since the rows are so LONG right now! I'll be sure to share some better updates once I get to where I can try it on.

Finally, happy Saturday! I hope you all get a little time to yourself no matter how busy your week has been. I know Jenny is!