Coffee Sweater

Coffee is addictive and so was this sweater. I couldn't knit it fast enough. The easy top down pattern means knitting all the way - none of those pesky purl rows that make me lose my tension. I knit the yoke and cream body in a week of evening knitting. It fitted well across the shoulders, another advantage of top down knits is the ability to try it on as you go. This one is based on the free Ravelry pattern The Simplest Sweater.

Pattern wise, I wanted to incorporate some of the brown balls of yarn which were in the stash bag too. I have forgotten to mention here that the wool was all unwanted therefore given to me for free. I turned to my Knit Nordic book for pattern inspiration and coffee featured again...

'Fana' is a pattern over 12 rows so I made sure I ended the waist decreases on 132 rows, a multiple of 12. It worked a treat, was easy to do and gives it the proper woolly Nordic feel of a winter sweater. Who would have thought a cafetiere pattern would work on a jumper? The coffee palette works well and I used the border part to add detail to the cuffs.

I noticed that on Ravelry I had made pattern notes from the first time I made this sweater back in 2010, I wrote that it would be better with ribbed hems rather than rolled hems so I picked up some stitches around the neck and sleeves to finish it off. I used five balls (500m) of cream Lopi Iceland Fleece Alafoss and some part balls from three different coffee browns. It was knit on 6mm needles.

I am always inspired by the patterned knits at Cozy Things. Kristen has a really good fit to her sweaters, this is achieved with a bit of maths along with a gauge square. There are many more of these sweaters in me. I would like to try one in a finer yarn next. For now though, I have three warm sweaters on rotation this winter.

This jumper is warm, make no mistake. Inevitably, it is itchy on the cuffs and neck but nothing a brown turtle neck underneath can't solve. I have also followed a tutorial on washing it in six tablespoons of hair conditioner in the bath which seems to have softened it up. No machine washing for this one!

Thanks for dropping by. Jo xxxxxx