Sometimes Monday ...

needs a special FO post!

I don't normally post on Mondays, but I skipped yesterday's Spinning Sunday post (on purpose -- I just didn't feel that I had much to talk about) and I have something special planned for tomorrow, so today's the day to share some FO photos and details!

Pattern: Little Boxy (Ravelry link) by Joji Locatelli, size 10
Yarn: Ex Libris Fibers Solnit (75% superwash merino/25% nylon) in Spruce Lane, 2.11 skeins (977 yards/893 meters)
Needles: US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 2.5 (3.0 mm)
Started/Completed: January 2/March 4
Mods: lengthened the ribbing and the sleeves

This project was a long time in the making. Rainbow picked out the yarn at Indie Knit & Spin back in November 2019, and I really didn't plan to wait more than a year before knitting the sweater, but of course 2020 happened and obliterated all my plans. Thankfully Rainbow is still on the petite side and I had plenty of yarn.

The last Little Boxy I knit for her was completed less than two years ago, which surprised me given how much wear she's gotten out of it. I'm hoping the same happens with this one. I certainly don't have to worry about her level of enthusiasm -- she's absolutely delighted with it and has been wearing it every chance she gets, to the point where I've actually had to tell her to take it off because I've worried she'd get ketchup or some other staining food on it. She says it's incredibly comfortable and a perfect fit, truly a relief, because we had a brief moment of panic when she tried it on when the body was done and the neckline was a little snug. Blocking helped immensely in that respect.

The yarn was lovely to work with though definitely on the light end of fingering. It's a hand-dyed yarn, so I alternated skeins as I always do. One of the three skeins I worked with was a bit darker than the other two, which made alternating all the more important. If you look closely, you might be able to see that the upper part of the back and the shoulders are a tad lighter than the rest of the body and the sleeves; those sections were done with the two lighter skeins. I would have run out of the darker yarn entirely had I tried to alternate it throughout, so I consciously decided to use it more in the bottom sections of the sweater so that I'd get a very subtle gradient effect if it was obvious. I can tell by looking for it, but I don't think it's the kind of thing that will be obvious to anyone who doesn't know about the difference in the skeins and isn't purposefully looking for it.

The only modification I made to the pattern was to lengthen the ribbing at both the bottom of the body and the sleeve cuffs and to make the sleeves a bit longer than called for. Joji only instructs you to work a small number of rounds of ribbing on the body, which I did for my Boxy, and it's really not enough to keep that hem from flipping up. For this version, I did a full inch of 1x1 rib. Rainbow also requested longer sleeves. On her first Little Boxy, I knit them to the specified length, and she's complained that they hit right at the bend of her elbow and can be a bit uncomfortable as a result. This 3/4 length, she says, is perfect -- long enough to keep her a bit warmer and not restrict her, but just short enough that she won't risk dragging the cuffs through her food or getting them wet when she washes her hands. I think the sleeve length also makes this an ideal spring sweater; somehow having that little bit of arm exposed keeps the sweater from being too hot.

There's quite a bit of yarn leftover, and I've told Rainbow that if she likes, I can make her a matching pair of socks with it.

I have to share this photo as well: On Saturday, when the sunshine made for perfect lighting for an FO photo shoot, Rainbow received a package in the mail that she was really anxious for.

If, like me, you really enjoyed Michelle Obama's memoir and have a young reader in your life, then you should know that last week she released the young readers' edition of Becoming. Rainbow couldn't wait for her copy to arrive (she even held off on starting a new book the day before it came because she knew she'd want to start it right away), and she's been reading it before bed for the past couple of nights. She also started keeping a reading journal (of sorts) this year, and I love that I officially have another Readers -- capital R! -- in the house!