This is the second time I have made this jumper, the first time being from yarn I bought in Iceland. I always felt that this first one was a little large, so bought some wool from The Stash Cupboard in Hobart (closed down now, so sad) which I thought would be lovely. It is a New Zealand yarn called “Outlaw” and it is 45% Polwarth (a breed of sheep) 45% Alpaca and 10% Possum) and I knew it would be light but warm as possum fur really adds warmth due to the hollow nature of the fibres.
I thought I’d knit it on the trip to New York, but I realised that I had packed really badly because of my panic over the weather, and I brought lots of outerwear, and lots of thermal wear, but almost nothing to wear in the middle, leaving all that in a pile on the guestroom bed! This meant that I suddenly needed to finish the jumper in a hurry and therefore furiously knitted it on planes, trains and automobiles.
I also thought I’d sneak a few wears of the jumper I knitted Mark to help my wardrobe problems along, but he has steadfastly held on to it, so this new jumper became more and more urgent.
I finished it on the train home from our trip to Washington DC and with no means of blocking it, I just gave it a light steam. I immediately began wearing it, and it got its first outing to Purl Soho, which I felt was appropriate. Mark took some photos of me, but I discovered I was a source of entertainment for people sitting on the seat at the front of the shop and so chose that photograph.
It wasn’t until I was writing this post and dug out the pattern that I realised that I had chosen the same colour as the one on the model. I include it because it shows the pattern a little better than any of my photos. I don’t think I’ll be wearing mine with silky striped shorts, as tempting as they are!
I wore it to the top of the Freedom Tower, which has the most sensational views over NYC. It also has one of the fastest lifts I’ve ever been in. (See here for my post on 9/11)
Here I am with my lovely youngest son, Archie. I have two other layers under this top, including a thermal, but Archie is sitting there in a t-shirt!
As I was knitting I began to stress about having enough yarn. This is what I had left over, which I think is a good result.
This was a simple knit which made it a perfect candidate for travel knitting. I was so pleased to finish it so that it could be added to my travel wardrobe and I was thrilled to be able to wear it for my two-day meetup with my friend Hélène, where we shopped, ate, talked and laughed non-stop, visited the Downton Abbey Exhibition, and did some serious sightseeing.
Hélène is wearing her hand-knits too. She was knitting the scarf when we caught up in Montréal last year, so it was lovely to see it finished.