Gorgeous summer sweater KAL

This beautiful Peruvian Connection catalog arrived in my mailbox yesterday.  Gorgeous stuff, it is.  I always swoon over their hand knit sweaters.  Like any good knitter, I think to myself, "I could knit that," but I usually don't. But I could,  and so could you.  This time, however, the stars seem to have aligned perfectly, and there's a gorgeous that would be super easy, super flattering, and we have the perfect yarn for it. 

The sweater is called the Maras Cardigan, and it's worked side to side with several earthy tones of pima cotton yarn. 

Perfect for this garment is Berroco Medina, a lovely cotton yarn that will drape beautifully and do its own striping. 

We could design our own pattern there's no need to reinvent the wheel - a quick look through Ravelry unearthed several options, and I've settled on Curlew because it's a pattern by a designer that I like and trust very much -- Amy Herzog, so I know it will be accurate and come in a wide variety of sizes.

Like Maras, Curlew is knit in one piece cuff to cuff so Medina's beautiful colors will fall into flattering vertical stripes like those in the Maras cardigan.  It's a terrific, pattern, super easy, and suitable for a first sweater.  Sounds like a perfect knitalong, doesn't it!    

Amy has written Curlew for 12 sizes - from 34" to 60."  She recommends choosing a size that gives you 4" of positive ease, so if your full bust measurement is 36", you would want to knit the 40" and so on.  Medina has great yardage, so even the largest size only requires 6 skeins! 

In order to make Curlew look more like the Maras Cardigan in my chichi catalog, I'm going to make a few mods:

• Shorten the sleeves a smidge by casting on more stitches and working fewer rows on the sleeves
• Work a seed stitch or a half linen stitch cuff and front band
• Increase the total length to 26"

Here's my dilemma, though - should I buy it for $239 or knit it myself for $60.  Lemme think on that for a second.  Okay. Knit. That didn't take long.  Mary agrees, so she and I will lead a fabulous and fun Maras/Curlew knitalong.  Come by the shop and choose your yarn, or order it here online,  and get swatching so you'll be ready for the knitalong. 

Kicking off Saturday, 12 May 1:30  See you then!