It's sweater weather

It's sweater weather again in Minneapolis. Although I like knitting wool garments and the changing seasons, I don't look forward to the first days of having to wear mittens and scrape frost off car windshields. The transition is made a little better when I have new handknits to look forward to. This year I finished three projects in time for the first frost.



The blue shawl is Westlake by Stephen West. I knit it with a pretty heathered yarn my sister picked up at a state fair. I love the details on this shawl, but it turned out a bit small because I used US4 needles instead of 4mm (US6). I read the pattern at home, packed US4 needles instead of 4mm needles, and proceeded to knit the whole thing on a flight to India without ever re-reading the gauge section. Whoops. It's small but I'll wear it as-is, so I'm not going to reknit the darn thing.

The cream shawl is Blue Whale by Stephen West, also made with yarn gifted from my sister. This time I used the called-for US6 needles and the shawl turned out to be a good size.

I started the little brown sweater back in April for JC Briar's set-in sleeves class at Yarnover. The pattern is from her class handouts. I do like this method, and I'll use it again. I opted to finish the sweater with a zipper instead of a button band, and I'm super pleased with the result. Isaac seems very excited about this sweater and the orange zipper, so I'm optimistic it will get worn a lot this winter.