perfectly practical

Clearly there is a huge problem with knitting a black sweater - it is simply impossible to photograph. Combine that with our dark house and it's game over for getting a nice shot. I stretched the levels to the limits in Photoshop to try and bring out a detail or two, but this is the best I could do before turning myself Martian green.

This does not however, affect how happy I am with the sweater. My plan last year was to make a top-down raglan with fuschia Cascade 220 after using the green for my first sweater (thanks to a class at Knitomatic). But Jay reminded me that I might be happier with black and he was so right. For all the effort of knitting something this big I should love it to death. So I picked up Sublime Merino DK, which is by far my favourite wool, promptly had yarn shortage anxiety, but in the end had just enough to complete the whole thing. It's soft and springy and I want to wear it everyday (plus it cold-water washes like a dream, and comes out feeling even better). The class taught me a bottom-up version, but I did a top down so I could better control the length. The cuffs, neckband and bottom band are seed stitch and I shaped the body ever so slightly to make sure the sweater clears my waistband.

I'd also like to point out that the last time Jay took a photo of me wearing my knit Sahara, I'm wearing the same pants. Perhaps I need more pants, and not more sweaters?

Pattern: my own
Wool: Sublime Merino DK, 11 balls
Needles: 4.5mm bamboo circs and Pony DPNs