Brrrr! Fighting the Cold with a Knit Pennington Sweater

It's frosty out there for Asheville weather. I'm talking achy-hands cold that won't even be stopped by bulky hand knit mittens.

While the cold is no fun, there is one reason I love it: I can bring out ALL THE KNITS. This week I found myself wearing this gorgeous sweater that I test knit for Christina Danaee back in August.

Pattern: Pennington by Christina Danaee

Yarn: Mirasol Yarn Sulka Legato in Light Aqua and Grey

My row gauge was a little tighter than the pattern called for, so my yoke ended prematurely. I made my sleeves just a little longer than the ones in the pattern, too, since I planned to wear it during winter.

I love patterns like this where the yoke has all kinds of awesome color work, then the rest of the sweater is easy breezy. Once you get past the yoke part, this is a sweater you can definitely take to your knitting group!

The only thing I don't like about the yarn I chose for the sweater is that while it's soft and lovely, when I wear it I am like a huge ball of static. I get shocked by everything and everyone I touch, and the sweater sticks to my hair.

I had quite an adventure choosing this yarn. Alex and I were in New York when I agreed to test knit it, and I had just finished up a few other projects while we were there. I thought it would be nice to start knitting it on the ride back to North Carolina.

My mother-in-law, also a knitter, is always up for visiting yarn stores. We tried one in her town, but I just couldn't find what I wanted. Plus, I told the owner what I was looking for, and she just kept filling my arms full of things that didn't meet that description at all.

We ended up in a town called Roslyn at a store called simply Knit, where I found lots of awesome yarns including this one. We liked it so much that my mother-in-law has started going there now.

Christina has so many beautiful patterns. Last year I also test knitted her Silvermine Shawl, and I foresee lots more of her patterns on my needles in the future!