Echo Lodge Sweater

One of my big knitting projects this fall/winter was to knit a sweater.  I had bought a lovely, chunky, baby alpaca yarn over a year ago with the intention of making a sweater... and I didn't get around to it before the weather got warm.  In October I found a great pattern book of sweaters called Tundra: Elements.  The author describes the book as a choose-your-own adventure book, but for knitting sweaters!  There is a basic raglan sweater pattern, and then each pattern has a special element that can be mixed and matched to make a custom sweater (collar options, stripes, v-neck, etc.)

The sweater I chose is called Echo Lodge.  I made it with blue and blue/green stripes on the body, gray sleeves, and a blue/green button placket.  From start to finish it took me three months to finish.  Based on the rate I normally complete projects, this was excellent!  Especially considering I knit this in between my yarn club projects, making Christmas gifts, and having four holiday craft shows.

I'm very pleased with how the sweater came out.  It is really soft, and nice and warm for winter.  However, it is super fuzzy... and I end up shedding on things while I'm wearing it!  I'm hoping that will go away once I wash (or soak) the sweater once.  I kinda skipped that step in the instructions because I wanted to wear it right away.  *Side note: while I was knitting, this sweater was the cat's absolute favorite!  So I included a picture of Frankie enjoying the sweater too.