First finish of 2012: Wonder Years

I considered setting the goal of knitting 12 sweaters in 2012, but I am notorious for setting crafty goals and not meeting them, so I figured: why set myself up for failure? Instead, I'm challenging myself to knit all the sweaters on my wish list that I've actually purchased yarn for. Luckily, I've only purchased yarn for 4 sweaters (one of them toddler sized), so it's definitely feeling doable. And until that goal is achieved, I just can't justify buying any more yarn.

There's nothing like putting oneself on a yarn diet to motivate one to actually knit. Go figure.

I have two sweaters in the works with said purchased yarn, and one of them will be finished by the end of the week, come what may. But today I wanted to share a sweater not originally on my sweater knit list, which also happens to be the first sweater I finished in 2012.

Back in December, when I should have been working on holiday gifts, I cast on for this Wonder Years cardigan for M (details here). It's a really great top-down raglan sweater pattern and I love that it comes in a wide variety of sizes (up to a size 8-10 years!!). This pattern is so clearly written and very easy to follow, and I know that I will definitely be making more of these in various colors and fibers. I worked on it a bit over the holidays, while in the car heading down to visit family, but the truth is that it mostly sat untouched until January, when I really made it a point to finish it.

I used Knit Picks Comfy Worsted (a Pima cotton/acrylic blend) for this sweater for two reasons: 1) I wanted it to be an easy-care garment to encourage wear, and 2) I had previously bought the yarn for a project that never materialized, and I wanted to use it up. I don't normally enjoy knitting with cotton, but this yarn was very easy to knit with and is incredibly soft. I seriously loved working on this, and would use this yarn again for this pattern.  Having said that, though, the next time I make this pattern, it will likely be with wool (Cascade 220 Superwash maybe?).

I loved making this sweater for my little guy. Sadly, this little boy of mine who adores his mama-knit hats really, really, really doesn't care for this sweater. He tells me it's because it doesn't feature a dinosaur, truck, or other trite boy motif. Ah, well... good thing a Digger Jacket is in my knitting queue.