It's always so exciting to finish a sweater! Especially when you finish it and you've already worn it multiple times in the same week.
Pattern
Almost one year since casting on, I've finished my Simple Stripe Pullover by Purl Soho. What first drew me to the pattern way the striping looks in the collar, hem, and cuffs. What drove me to the finish line was just how soft the yarn is. This pattern is sized up to 66" bust with generous ease. I chose to knit size 1 given how oversized it is.
Yarn
I used the recommended yarn: Purl Soho's Cashmere Merino Bloom. The retail price on this yarn is no joke ($43/skein), so I waited to combine my discount from signing up for their newsletter and their annual sale to get 6 skeins for $172.80 ($28.80/skein). It's a pricey sweater (both in terms of time and supplies), but the end result feels worth the (slightly discounted) cost. The yarn is extremely soft to knit with and against the skin, and it blocked really beautifully. The yarn also has a soft halo (which is very popular in hand knit sweaters recently) that really elevates it.
The short rows around the neckline were a little tricky due to the switching back and forth between colors to maintain the striped pattern, but after that this sweater was a very straightforward, top-down raglan construction. And again, the yarn made this an extra enjoyable knit. I started it in March, took a break over the summer, and returned to in in November to finish it in January.
One thing I really like about this sweater is how it doesn't flare out in the back. Usually short rows help with this, but some older sweaters I've knit (and shirts I've sewn) tend to flare out at the back hem because they are not sitting correctly on the back of the neck. This one fits perfectly.
My one hang up is the jogged "seam" down the center back. The pattern has you purl the last stitch before the end of the round, creating a faux seam that I think is to disguise the jogged stripes (as happens when knitting stripes in the round). I don't hate it, but I found this version recently that uses a contrasting color for the back seam, and adds other faux seams to the sides. If I were to make this again, I would try to figure out how that knitter achieved that.
Final Thoughts
I'm obsessed with how warm and soft this sweater is. It's also a very easy-to-wear shape. I anticipate wearing this one as lot as long as it stays chilly here in Philly. You can check out my Ravelry project page here.
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