Cotton Wood

I finished this sweater last month and should have hoofed it over to the PFRA for some FO shots under the Cottonwood trees but the snow came rather quickly. I ran out of time. I may still get some nice winter shots if I layer up.

Hmm... I love planning the photo sessions. B thinks I'm crazy. I get really excited taking pictures of my knitting and only somewhat excited about taking pictures of my kids!

These are the amazing Cottonwood Trees (they deserve a capital letter)! The wind knocked one down this spring and it's lying over the slew like a giant bridge. When I first saw the pattern by Cecily Glowik MacDonald I immediately thought of these trees.

Idlewood is a top down raglan sweater with a giant cowl. I was really unsure of that part. It seemed like a lot of knitted fabric at my neck and I thought I looked like a dork, not quite the look I was aiming for. After I had finished the knitting (very quick) and blocking, I tried it on again and you know what? I so wasn't a dork at all! The sweater looks great!

I knit Cottonwood on 6.5mm circular needles (my addi turbos, love addis!). I used 3 skeins of Shepherds Own (even though I bought 7!) in the dark brown. It worked out to about 756 yards according to Raverly and I really did use just about all of those 3 skeins. I didn't make any mods, the pattern is written so well, I didn't have to.

This was a fun sweater to knit and it's a fun sweater to wear. The only complaint I have is the pilling in high stress areas. Because this more of a tunic length, the derriere is getting a bit of friction with sitting and moving and the garter stitch edge is pilling.

The yarn I knit this out of is 100% wool and it will pill and felt together, I should have thought about that a bit more. I don't know if a super wash or merino would hold up any better to be honest and I really like the rustic look the pure wool gives. So I wear this sweater occasionally. 

I'm knitting another sweater by Cecily. The Castle Pullover (in a beautiful green yarn called Marsh) promises to be very wearable and lovely for work. I'll blog about it soon (I'm halfway there).

Happy Friday!