This is, hands down, my favorite knit so far

Pattern: Manu

Designer: Kate Davies

Yarn: Madelinetosh DK in Olivia, 6 skeins

I loved everything about this.  The pattern is so well written and comes in a bunch of sizes so it fits perfectly.  The only modifications I made were to mirror the pleats, which you can see clearly on the back detail photo, and I had to shorten the pockets by an inch because I very nearly ran out of yarn.  In the original pattern the pleats all go the same way around the neck, and I much prefer the look of the mirrored pleats. Here is where I am so grateful to the internet else I never would have been able to make it look like that! I loved the i-cord edging even though it took a while; it adds such a nice, finished look to the edges.

This was the yarn I picked up in San Francisco after my long airport stay where I used up all the yarn I’d brought with me. Because the yarn is hand-dyed, there can be big variations between skeins, so they lay out all the skeins they have in a particular colorway so you can pick the ones that are most similar.  5 of them were almost identical, one was darker, so I used that one and alternated rows for the sleeves for a perfect blended look with no pooling.

Picking out buttons is always tough-I had a hard time deciding between the yellow shell or wooden buttons, but I thought that these echoed the overall feel of the sweater and brought out the lighter tones.

Anyway, I love it and want one in another color!