Upper West Sweater

It's a cool rainy night, Spring slowly creeping in, taking its sweet time. A night like tonight inspired me to reflect on my most recent finished knitting project, a sweater I spent four months knitting and conjuring in my mind years before its inception.

Quite a few years ago, I started dreaming of the perfect cream-colored wool sweater, inspired by classic fisherman's sweaters, and maybe a little bit of Elizabeth Zimmermann thrown in the mix. It was always a vague idea, no pattern or yarn in mind.

In late 2021 (pre-Delta variant covid time) I had taken a trip to Philadelphia, PA and was spending a day exploring the city solo on foot. I racked up miles checking out the Liberty Bell and other historic stops, coffee shops, cemeteries, and of course a yarn shop is always on my travel list. I ended up in a lovely shop called Yarnphoria on Pine Street, where I found this beautiful yarn, Kelbourne Woolens Lucky Tweed. I picked up six skeins, ready to make my dream sweater a reality.

I am often drawn to Thea Coleman's patterns, and Upper West Sweater was an excellent fit for this yarn. It checked the boxes: classic shape, timeless style, lots of cables. It wasn't all a fairy tale when it came to the knitting - I admit, sometimes I was so sick of the cables, I wondered if I had made a mistake in deciding to knit this thing! But once I memorized the cable chart due to LOTS of repetition, the sweater really started to flow out of my hands.

At the end of the project, I was more than pleased. I made the 41.25" size, allowing for over 5" of positive ease for a cozier sweatshirt-like fit.

For the small details, you can check out the Ravelry page.