Moxie

I finished something!  A whole sweater!  And I love it.  This is my Moxie.  I thought that I had missed sweater weather, but it looks like I will still have plenty of time to wear this before summer actually hits.

Amy Christoffers is one of my favorite designers, and this sweater is another winner for sure.  Let me tell you about my version.

It took me awhile to choose colors, but I ended up blatantly copying Amy's original.  My orange is Cascade Heritage Sock, and the brown is Rowan 4 Ply Soft.  The 4 Ply Soft has been discontinued, but it's basically a nice washable fingering weight wool.  Almost any doubled sock yarns will do.  Here's my swatch, for an up-close look.

As I consider the next one (or several) that I'd like to make, I was thinking about how cool a color-blocked version would be.  I would choose one neutral to use for the whole sweater, and then three or four shades to create an ombre effect.  Or stripes.  So many possibilities.  A friend of mine is making her Moxie with a solid and a variegated sock yarn held together, and it's turning out great, too.

I was going for big, slouchy, throw-on-over-my-pajamas kind of sweater, so I sized up a bit.  I made the 41" with about 4 inches of positive ease from my actual measurements.  I also skipped all waist shaping and just knit the body straight.  Perhaps not as flattering, but just fine with me.

The pattern will also work perfectly with a single strand of standard worsted weight like Cascade 220 or Berroco Ultra Alpaca.  (I have recently re-fell in love with Ultra Alpaca...more on that soon.)  I used a US6 for this, which I originally thought would be way too small.  But, I swatched and washed my swatch like a diligent knitter, and I'm so glad I did.  The fabric relaxed so nicely with a little soak, my gauge was spot-on, and the texture is like a cozy, squishy sweatshirt.  Perfecto.