Summer Sweater

Here on the Central Coast it's generally cool enough to be sweater weather right through the summer, yet it's rarely cold enough to require wool. This sweater pretty much hits the sweet spot for our climate.

The pattern is Wasabi, by Wendy Bernard. This is a blank slate kind of pattern. Boat neck, drop shoulder sleeves. It's basically 4 rectangles joined together. It's knit seamlessly from the top down and it's good social knitting. Not much tricky stuff to distract from a good conversation.

side shot

I used a yarn called Bamboo Pop, which is a 50/50 cotton bamboo blend. It was nice to knit with and the fabric is soft and fluid. Which is a good thing, because a sweater this square could easily be a mite too boxy if the fabric had a lot of body.

back view

I see from my Ravelry notes that it took me about 6 month to knit this up. That's only because it spent quite some time resting in my knitting bag. If you kept plugging away at it you could finish this sweater in a week, I bet.

I bought the yarn at Stitches West because I liked the color. I might call it periwinkle blue. Or maybe cornflower? It's a pretty strong color. I used to be able to wear pastels, but since my hair turned grey I feel like I disappear unless I wear colors with some punch to them.

Color is very washed out here, but look at that diagonal ribbing

The pattern called for knit2-purl2 ribbing at the edges. I made my own little mark by doing a diagonal rib instead. There are some instructions for it on Craftsy here. Basically, you just shift the rib pattern one stitch to the left every other row.

We're getting ready to take a train trip to Chicago, stopping along the way to visit family in Minnesota. Nothing like a train trip for some prime knitting time! I'll be starting on Snapdragon, by Marie Wallin. That's if I can figure out the gauge by next Wednesday.

My Ravelry notes are here, if you're interested.