Arboreal Sweater

Knitting season is lingering here on the central coast. We've been having a cold snap, along with more rain than we've seen in many a year. I've even been seeing headlines saying that most of the state is out of drought territory, at least for this year.

Anyway, lots of quality time on the couch with yarn and needles. My most recent FO is the Arboreal sweater. There are more than 2,500 versions of this sweater on Ravelry, so it's a pretty popular pattern. I can see why. It's well written and pretty straight-forward to knit, and there is some short row shaping in the upper back, so that the neck sits nicely. 

I used some Louet Gems sport weight yarn that I found in the sale bin at The Swift Stitch here in Santa Cruz. The ball band called the color Pewter, but to me it's kind of a khaki/caffe au lait. I used part of one ball of Cascade super wash in a faded green for the leaves.

I was aiming to make the sleeves about three quarter length, partly to get the sleeves over with and partly because I usually push my sleeves up to the elbow anyway. I think I overshot my mark a bit, but when they're pushed up you can't tell.

I've been really enjoying the knitting lately. I'm not sure why, but it feels like running into an old friend you haven't seen for a few years.

I've been dipping my toe into color work, which may be why I've got the wind beneath my wings a bit. This is a good pattern for a first or second color work project. You don't have many long floats to deal with and the scary part is right up in the beginning, so if you have to back track you don't have too much to undo. 

My Ravelry notes are here.