Although it is getting a bit warmer over here, a cozy handknit sweater is always a good thing to have in your wardrobe!

I had several balls of grey drops lima, a beautiful DK weight yarn with a alpaca/wool blend. I was going to use it for another boxy sweater with faux cables. Mid project I decided I didn’t like the look of the sweater and in the frog pond it went!

I still loved the grey color, but the urge to dye it overcame me and so I started rewinding the balls into skeins and dyed them in several rainbow colors. Because of the grey base you get all kinds of muted loveliness.

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How pretty is that ^^

I needed a nice sweater pattern and of course I came back to joji locatelli’s designs. I already knitted her worsted boxy sweater and old romance cardigan, so I know her patterns are awesome. I had my eyes on her manizanilla sweater and thought it would be perfect for my freshly dyed yarn 🙂 It is finally finished and I must say I really love this one! It is super warm, cozy and very soft because of the alpaca content.

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Bonus backside of my cat

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The cables look so great in this super variegated yarn!*

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This sweater is the perfect fit for me and I really like cute look of the split at the bottom. Originally it was ribbed throughout the sweater, but I didn’t like that busy look in combination with my yarn, so I did gradually less ribbing every few rows.

I must say Joji is by far my favorite sweater designer. Her patterns are really easy to follow and she mostly uses shortrows to shape the shoulders and sleeves which I think works great.

Who is your favorite designer? Can you recommend any to me?

* Obligatory ‘Sorry’ for cutting of my head, but I wasn’t really smiling and I am really happy with this sweater, so I don’t want you to get conflicting messages 😉