Ekorre

My third sweater of this year is a real cutie pie! 

What: Ekorre / Own pattern

How: Circular needle 2.75 mm

From: Louhittaren Luola Kytöläinen II, 202 g

The story of this sweater begun last fall as we were headed for Lapland to go hiking amidst the fall foliage. A talented dyer has her shop along the way and I had never before had the chance to visit her store. Our hiking trip gave me the perfect excuse to finally visit Louhittaren Luola (Knitlob's Lair).

We stopped for an hour and I got to see the dyeing studio and did a fair bit of shopping as well. I was especially excited to finally get to test Kytöläinen II which is a beautiful handdyed light fingering weight yarn of Finnish wool. I'm always into local wool! And it didn't hurt that there was this stunning pearl grey tone that I paired up with a warm hazelnut brown. I was in the mood for color work. 

And color work it was to be. The yarns turned into this sweet sweater called Ekorre. The sweater is worked seamlessly top-down. The sweater has a round yoke with a woodland-themed color work pattern featuring acorns, squirrels and oak leaves.

The yoke ends with a purl ridge and the rest of the sweater features a simple stitch pattern giving the sweater a bit of texture.

I haven't fully embraced the fashionable bishop sleeve trend but I'm quite smitten with these sleeves where you stop the decreases a bit early to give a little more room above the cuffs.

One of my favorite things about this sweater is definitely the folded neckline. Provisional cast on and a folded neckband give the neatest finishing touch to a sweater. It also helps the neckline stay in shape.

You can find Ekorre on Ravelry and there's an introductory discount of 20% with the code ORAVA (squirrel in Finnish). The code is valid through March 15th. The pattern comes with sizes XXS-5XL, a finished bust circumference of 35.75-66.5''. The recommended ease is 4.75''.

With this sweater I finally got my last missing letter and now I have designs starting with all the alphabet from A to Z. And so will start the Anna Johanna Alphabet Challenge! The challenge being to work a design of mine starting with each letter. There's no deadline for this KAL. There's a KAL thread in my Ravelry group where you can come and chat and show of your projects. If anyone is goofy enough to complete the challenge they will get a signed diploma and my enamel pin - and of course get their name in the Hall of Fame.