Tuesday, January 21, 2014

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.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25370403@N08/12059820485/in/photostream/
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.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25370403@N08/12060726056/in/photostream/
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.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love the sweater, it's just my style. The colors are great too!

What a cool idea...a choose your own adventure type book for crafts. Wish I'd thought of that!

minimeg said...

Thanks Erin! I liked the first one so much that I already have yarn picked out for another sweater out of this book.