The Every Day Sweater

I know I am always saying it:  I will live in this sweater.   Friends, I put this sweater on before it was even completely dry, crawled under a blanket and took a nap in it, and have since taken it off only long enough to bathe.  I am wearing it right now.  I took it off for a minute, to photograph it for you, and then put it right back on again.  A sweater this good makes me start to think maybe I don’t even need any of my other sweaters [nevermind, that’s nonsense] and another thing:  usually, after a big success, I am headfirst in the stash looking for more more MORE, but for now, I am just sitting here, curled up and purring.  It couldn’t be a grayer, simpler, more ordinary sweater if it tried.  It looks like every single thing you’ve ever seen anybody wear, ever.  The yarn [Naturally Nazareth, a 100% domestic wool workhorse aran weight yarn in the sublime colorway “Moonlight”] is stubbornly sturdy and, well, basic.  It looks like it will last a hundred years, but it made my hands ache.  It wasn’t that much fun to knit with, if I am being truthful, and I’m afraid the luxury yarn binge I’ve been on lately has spoiled me rotten for these more pedestrian yarns but after a soak and a day spread out on the table to dry, it came to life.  The cables relaxed out so beautifully and the whole thing softened up just enough, and I really, truly, want to live in this sweater.  Well, I have been.  

It is rumpled and wrinkly now, and (probably because it finished its blocking while it was on me and I was asleep) it has conformed to my shape [I won’t make a joke about also being rumpled and wrinkly, I won’t I won’t I won’t] so it’s slightly poochy at the elbows and the cuffs are stretched out and the I really couldn’t love it more.  It just feels like one of those beat and comfy old things I’ve had forever.  It is the best friend I’ve just met.  (Should I block everything this way now, by sleeping in it while it’s still a little damp?  By the way, if you did that in anything besides wool, you’d probably get hypothermia.)

The (free!) pattern is here.  It comes in only one size, but because the side panels and sleeves are in stockinette, you can easily adjust it up or down to fit you.  I added a few stitches at the bottom of the body, to accomodate my pear-shape, and decreased a few times at the sides to get to the right bust size for me.  I also winged it at the yoke, but that’s really just because I don’t like to fuss over things like attached i-cord and p3 tog.  So the pattern isn’t perfect [but it is free] and the yarn isn’t perfect [or is it?] but this finished sweater?  It has a couple wonky bits and it looks like it was knit by a loving grandma back in 1958 so somebody’s older brother could wear it to play rugby at Yale.  Yep, it’s perfect.