When the leaves turned last November, I had the urge to cast on something to celebrate pumpkin spice season. The perfect autumnal color “Rust” in Knitting for Olive was in my yarn stash and I decided that it had to become a sweater.
I went to Instagram and Ravelry to look for inspiration and of course, there are a bajillion options. I have followed Aimee Sher and their wearable design portfolio for a while now. Aimee specializes in great fit and modification options with their patterns, so I picked the Coloring Book Tee as my fall sweater thinking I could be done in a month. Haha, who was I kidding? Skinny yarn, skinny needles and tiny stitches — definitely a long-term project in the making.
November turned into December and then we headed into an early spring and other projects distracted me. If you are a creative person, you will understand this perpetual work-in-progress phenomenon. This year, when the first hint of fall was in the air, I was thrilled to have a half-finished sweater in the perfect autumnal shade. I worked on it steadily and just like that, a project that traveled from last year’s WIP pile into this year’s fall knitting queue was done!
The pattern at first glance seems like a simple, top-down tee design that’s been done by so many designers. But Aimee’s fit guidance, compound raglan construction method, bust dart options, and twisted rib details make this one of the projects I am so proud to have completed.
Even though this is a pattern for a tee I wanted to make this garment cool weather friendly. I chose to knit 3/4 length sleeves, who am I kidding… I was forced to knit 3/4 length sleeves because I lost at yarn chicken 😉 I picked a size with less positive ease so that I can style my sweater on its own or layer it under a warm coat or jacket on extra chilly days.
While the lightweight nature of KFO Merino seemed like my project was neverending, it was worth the patience for the wearable result it produced making my Coloring Book Sweater perfect for all seasons or for just being silly!
Coloring Book Sweater (Ravelry Project Page)
Pattern: Coloring Book Tee by Aimee Sher
Yarn: Knitting for Olive Merino in “Rust”
Needles: US 5 & 6 / 3.5 & 4 mm
Everyone needs a handknit to celebrate sweater weather 🙂
