Gray Light

It's done! (And I promise it isn't blurry in real life -- the Mister hadn't yet had his coffee when he took these photos!)

Pattern: Evenlight by Jennifer Dassau
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Targhee Worsted (100% Targhee wool; 616 yds./250 g skein) in Deep Unrelenting Gray, 2.13 skeins (approximately 1311 yds.)
Needles: US 8/5.0 mm
Started/Completed: January 9/April 2
Mods: slight adjustments to the collar (see below)

First, I have to apologize to my fellow Pittsburghers for taking so long to finish the sweater. I'm worried I might have brought on the cold weather because I was so excited to get it done and wear it before packing it away for the spring and summer. I did in fact wear it today, and it was in the low 20s (in the teens with wind chill) with snow and ice around when I walked to work this morning.

I am very happy with this sweater, despite some minor problems. I don't knit pullovers for myself all that often (I think this may be my third ever), but this pattern looked to me like a comfy sweatshirt-type sweater, one that would be extra cozy and comforting on a crummy weather day. It didn't actually take me three months to knit; for a good part of that time, it was just sitting and waiting for me to get back to it. When I did actually knit on it, it moved along pretty quickly -- one of the great benefits of knitting with large needles! The stitch pattern is very squishy and completely reversible, so I suppose I could wear the sweater inside out if I really wanted to.

The main challenge with this project was that I had bought yarn based on the recommended amount in the pattern, but it wasn't enough and I had to buy more. The pattern recommends 1110 yards for the size I was making, and I chose the yarn in large part because it comes in huge skeins, meaning I should have only needed two skeins (a total of 1232 yards). Once I finished the body, it was clear that I would not have enough yarn left to knit both of the sleeves and the collar. That necessitated a trip back to my LYS, where they luckily had one skein of yarn left in the same color (and, even more luckily, from the same dye batch). It's certainly possible that my row gauge was a tad off (I can't remember exactly what I got in my swatch) and that accounted for some difference in yarn usage, but 200 yards does seem like a pretty significant amount.

I only made one modification to the pattern and that was to the collar. I picked up more stitches than specified for the collar (about 25 more, actually), so I was a bit worried it was going to flare out. To counteract that, on two rounds, I worked two pairs of decreases roughly at the raglan lines. This worked perfectly. The collar sits very nicely and isn't too tight (it is a rather wide neck).

In spite of the challenges, I'm very pleased with this project and I have a feeling this sweater will get lots of wear in the years to come.