Final Shalom Love

Hi Knitters,

Briefly, I simply love my Shalom. I love everything about it including the knitting of it, the buttons, adding the sleeves and two additional buttonholes, the pattern and finally and mostly, wearing it.
Pattern: Shalom (It's free!)

Yarn: Cascade 128 in Summer Sky Heather

The original pattern doesn't have sleeves so I looked around and found some sketchy ideas on how to best add sleeves in the notes here and here. I did a kind of combination of these two instructions. I knit this up for fun so I am not going to be writing out any further pattern instructions for my version of Shalom. It is refreshing for me to get to knit and not worry about pattern writing as I go. There are many, many modification instructions out there in Ravelry-land if you are interested in making and modifying a Shalom for yourself. Plus, it is fun to look around and see what people have done. Hop on the finished projects page to look. There are a mere 3,000 versions of Shalom to shuffle through.

I think this cardigan looks better with sleeves. In fact, I had seen it without the sleeves and wasn't interested in knitting it until I ran across a few of the sleeved versions. After I saw Shalom with sleeves I ran for my needles.

Next up sweater-wise for me:

Owls in Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds in Steel Gray (just received from Jimmy Beans Wool)

Garter Yoke Cardigan in Peace Fleece purchased many years ago from Kpixie

Manu in Rowan Cashsoft DK in a deep pink that I've had forever and a day

I'm late to the game but am thinking about making this cardigan. I don't know the yarn yet.

Another sweater I have pulled out is the Cabled Blanket Coat by Sarah Dallas. I have a good start on this from a few years ago but then got sidetracked. I am about half finished. I found it tucked away in a bin the other day. I am knitting it in Rowan Scottish Tweed DK. I am still in love with this yarn and pattern.

My sweater collection needs an updated boost and with two brand-new fun sweaters (Shalom and the Tea Leaves Cardigan) I am well on my way to having an excellent new sweater wardrobe this coming fall.

I'll be back with a couple of giveaways soon. I have a lot of stuff and books to giveaway but I just need to find the time to organize and get it going. I have received 3 books in the last couple of weeks and some patterns and I always have yarn to give... so soon!

Have fun at TNNA this weekend if you are going. I won't be attending this one so I can't wait to hear all about it.

best, susie