Handspun Snowbird

I'll try to contain my excitement on this one.  But I warn you now, it's going to be tough because I think this is my favourite hand knit sweater to date -- the handspun snowbird.


Some years ago I had some malabrigo listed on my destash page.  A lovely lady from Aspenlund Farms contacted me to see if I'd be interested in trading for some of her handspun yarn.  At this point in time I hadn't had the pleasure of using handspun yarn, but I know 'hand' created anything has consumed a lot of someone's time and energy and was therefore something special.  Heck yes I'll trade!

Sure enough the yarn arrived and I fell in love with it - it was a 50/50 mix of Icelandic and Mohair yarn.  It was a beautiful neutral - the tag explained that these fibers were harvested from organically kept creatures and processed without the use of harsh chemicals.  What I loved most of all was the somewhat rustic and artisanal nature of the yarn.  Given it's natural beauty, I wanted to find a simple pattern that would allow the yarn to sing!



I searched through Ravelry and it didn't take long before I came across Heidi Kirrmaeier's Snowbird.  It is such an elegant, flattering and simple pattern.  Yes, this was 'the one'.  A match made in heaven :)



I actually cast on for this some years ago - not long after Naomi was born.  My sleep-deprived baby brain had a few issues figuring out the start of this, where you make a provisional cast on for the collar.  But I got there, and I started knitting, and it was an enjoyable project to work on.  I'm not quite sure why this fell into the WIP pile for soo long.  But I think once projects fall in there, it is a bit of a black hole.  Any hoo, my dear friend Andi gifted me a fabulous sweater pattern the other day (thank you sooo much), and I decided that I should finish up my WIP sweaters before I cast on something new:  Snowbird came out of hibernation!



I was super happy to be back working on this.  Especially as I was on the home stretch with just the bottom of the sweater and the pockets to complete.  It was finished in no time.  I blocked it this last week, and it was dry in time for yesterday's snowfall -- the perfect backdrop to take pictures for snowbird :)



I didn't make any modifications to this beautifully written pattern - just knit as instructed.  I see another in my future, and may go up a size on my next one to make it a little less sleek, and a little more snuggly.  But yes, super happy with this very wearable FO.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend,
Sam
xxx