The Hand-Knitted Sweater

While Eileen and I were in Scotland last year, I actually considered learning to knit just to make myself a sweater as beautiful as the ones I was seeing on the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, and some islands that were so small and remote, I'm not certain who was doing the knitting. But Eileen, God bless her, saved me from all that aggravation and offered to knit me one herself. I chose a Rowan pattern and yarn, part cotton and part cashmere that is so yummy that people keep wanting to feel me when I tell them Eileen knitted it for me. Here is the sweater:


Here is the back:


Here is a close up of the knitting. I don't know enough about knitting to tell you what kind of knitting pattern this is:

And here is the front with the buttons I picked out from my local yarn shop:
I got the pattern and the buttons (and decision to use this yarn) from The Yarn Lounge here in Carytown. Melanie who runs The Yarn Lounge was amazingly helpful to me in choosing everything, given that I know absolutely nothing about knitting. She took my photo wearing the sweater and put it up on her blog here. I want to thank her very much. Also, she seemed very interested in the fact that I made my own skirt. Even though she doesn't sew, I sense a sewing convert in the making! I urge everyone who loves to knit to check out this shop.

While at the shop last week on a visit from Boston, Eileen bought even more yarn, in a really yummy red. She wants to make this sweater for me again. She is not well. She isn't happy with this one because now that she has made it, she knows everything that she would do differently. I don't see anything wrong with this wonderful cobalt blue sweater, but like the rest of us, she only sees the small (very small) imperfections in what she makes. But I love it. And if she wants to make me another sweater for next year, who am I to argue? Plus, I have a feeling I'll be piecing another quilt for her at some point. (It's that learning by doing thing . . .)

Parting Shot: Photo of me and Miss Eileen while I am wearing the sweater. Thank you, Eileen! I love it!