Dreaming of snow

I really can’t believe it’s the middle of August. This summer has really flown by!

Sunday, on the hottest day Chicago has had this year, I finished my most dreamy winter cardigan.

I started it on July 13th, for a knit-a-long on Ravelry. The colors remind me of spearmint or peppermint, and the colorway translates to Peppermint Prince in English, so it’s my peppermint cardigan.

The pattern is DROPS Jacket in Alpaca and Glitter with 2-colour pattern in raglan. I modified the size with my gauge, so instead of sport weight this is a fingering weight. It’s knit in Wollmeise Sockenwolle 100% in Pfefferminz Prinz and Natur. I used 13 vintage moonglow buttons that just happened to be a perfect match. You can see the details on my Ravelry project page.

I’m ridiculously pleased with how it turned out, and want to go out and cast on about a million other yoke sweaters right now. However I settled on a vintage pattern, Star Cardigan, knit in Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift. As I worked on the ribbing on the bus on my morning commute, I listened to Catriona MacDonald’s Bold. Wonderful Shetland music for a wonderful Shetland yarn.

Oh, this would be a good time to mention how much I hate seaming, and the lengths I’ll go to avoid setting in sleeves. So for this cardigan, instead of knitting it in 5 pieces (back, front right, front left, 2 sleeves), I’ll be knitting the entire body in one piece, and then adapting the sleeves to work faux set-in sleeves à la Wendy Bernard’s method in Custom Knits. A way to avoid seaming in sleeves? Bring it on.

So while I’m dreaming of a snowy day so I can wear my lovely new cardigan, it’s in the 80s and we’re going camping in Wisconsin with our friends this weekend. Then in two more weeks we’re off to New Mexico for 10 days! My more realistic dreams (other than snow) include sopaipillas. Mmm.