Anthony’s First Sweater

I’ve tempted the fates, I have knit Anthony’s first sweater and we are not married. However, just to try and find a loophole in the curse I have told him it’s on loan until we’re married. If something was to happen, the sweater is mine.

I love how it’s turned out! The pattern is the Cambridge Jacket by Ann Budd. It’s in the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits, and the Best of Interweave Knits Book. I knit the body in the round until I got to the sleeve openings. I knit both sleeves at the same time to make them identical. The sleeves ended up being too long, so I simply folded under the excess and sewed the hem. The pattern called for a single crochet stitch all along the bottom edge to help it from rolling up. While this did help, it didn’t eliminate the rolling all together. However, with it’s first washing (I’m a bad knitter and don’t block out before wearing) I may be able to block it slightly straighter. The yarn was purchased in June 2007, started knitting in August 2007, and finished in March 2008. I could have finished this much quicker, but it got shoved aside several times for things with deadlines.

This sweater began on our trip to Albuquerque in June last summer. I had actually already started spinning yarn for a sweater out of a dark blue wool silk blend (this will someday become a Cobblestone Pullover). Anthony has gotten pretty used to me wanted to hit a yarn store on our travels. As we were perusing Village Wools, he came up to me with a skein declaring his love. He was even brilliant enough to find some buttons of his liking! (I think he’s a keeper.) Of course we went straight to the cash register and I immediately had a vision of the finished project.

After the sweater was finished we went for a walk around Mt Pisgah. We had known that I wanted to give him something to wear for our engagement, and a few weekends before we found a pendant that suited him. It’s funny because even though the jewelery makes more sense, (you just can’t wear a sweater everyday, people start looking at you funny) the sweater meant more to me. It was important to me that the sweater and the pendant went together as a gift symbolizing our commitment to each other.  Now it’s time to decide what gets knitted for the wedding!