Big Sweater for John Completed

Big Sweater for John Completed and the Furz Scarf

I finally get to show off two of my very favorite things: my husband and a handknitted sweater! The sweater is done in Jaeger Natural Fleece, Coal. The pattern is from Jaeger Handknits JB14, its called "Deacon".

This is meant to be a big, loose, comfy, casual sweater -- its pretty easy to knit up and it is definitely warm. This is the first sweater John let me knit for him -- I finally got smart and let him pick a pattern and the yarn so it is in a style and color range that he likes. I modified a few things to make the pattern work better. You can check out my modifications for this sweater in my Gallery section. I don't think I like set in sleeves very much. But because this yarn is so dark, it is sort of hard to tell where the sleeves start, anyway. I didn't block this one, but I do plan to give it a bath and shape it up a little.

Over Christmas, I also completed my simple Furz scarf. Here's a picture of me and the scarf.

The backdrop to the furz scarf is the second ever sweater I knitted -- an Alice Starmore cardigan from her Stillwater pattern book called "Grapevine". It was on this sweater that I learned how potentially disasterous it could be not to check gauge correctly -- it turned out rather more oversized than I intended and I had to run around at the last minute and find an extra skein of Brown Sheep Worsted that matched the original batch so that I could finish it. Still, the aran-work in the sweater turned out better than I could have imagined for taking the project on so early in my knitting career.

This is a close up of the scarf and the sweater:

Berroco Furz is a fun yarn to work with. It is soft and smooth and just slips over your fingers when you knit. It's the kind of yarn that just begs to be knit up and then knits up easily. I love wearing the scarf, too, but it is a little itchy without a collar.

While out to brunch with John this morning, I actually got asked if I might want to make the scarves for a shop... so this yarn really does get people's attention!

To find out more about the scarf, and the pattern that goes with it, check out Furz Scarf in my Gallery.