Garance.

...indeed I have an FO to share on a Friday. This is Garance.

details are on my Ravelry page here

I'd had my eye on the pattern since it was published last year. Love Julie Hoover's style and I knew I loved the Heichi (this is my fourth sweater knit with that yarn!). But it didn't call my name until I saw this blog post. Whoa. And I was knitting Mix No. 9 at the time and realized that carrying along Silk Cloud wasn't as fiddle-y as I thought it might be. And it was certainly a good sign that I had a sweater's worth of Heichi in my stash...in the colorway the pattern suggested.

But as great as all that sounds, what totally sold me was the swatch. Oh my I can't even describe how great the fabric feels. The Silk Cloud takes all the rough edges off the Heichi and leaves behind just silky softness. With a bit of a mohair halo. Truly, it's lovely.

I knit the pattern as written except that I knit the sleeve cuffs 5" shorter since I don't intend to roll them back. Also, I planned only three inches of positive ease (I don't think I'm tall enough to carry off the 6+ inches shown on the pattern!).

the sleeve cuff with just a single layer

three inches of positive ease is plenty, especially with the wide neckline

I finished the knitting last Friday and spent my knitting time on Saturday sewing down the collar, seaming the underarms, weaving in ends and finally wet-blocking. It took over 60 hours to dry...and over that two-plus days, our temperatures dropped from low 70's to 30's and 40's. 

My apologies to all the Atlantans who thought spring was here to stay. Today is still cold. And I'm going to wear the sweater again (yep, four days in a row!)...this time with black pants and a white button-down. Love how versatile this sweater is - it layers beautifully and the color goes with just about anything (I'm especially looking forward to wearing it with my white cropped jeans and a camisole...once it gets a little warmer!)

Also - super cool moments for me to get replies from both Julie and Shibui when I tweeted about the sweater's debut on Tuesday. And a very nice comment on my Ravelry page from Karen, who inspired me to knit it in the first place.