Pelle Test Knit

Another test knit for Gabrielle Danskknit! I came in dead last of all the test knitters, but I finally finished this lovely little raglan sweater with interesting -- and simple -- cables down the sides is called "Pelle." You can buy the pattern here. Sizes run from newborn to adult large -- and I know we all love that kind of range. It makes patterns so much more useful.

My Pelle sweater is made from a yarn that has been in my stash for a while. It is a lovely, squishy-soft aran weight yarn from Classic Elite called "Majestic Tweed."  It is a wool, silk and angora blend, and, while it is discontinued, there are others like mine. Doing a quick bit of research, I found that Noro made some similar yarns such as "Retro," and "Vintage," and there is yet another yarn called "Juno" by The Great Adirondack Yarn Company  Look around your stash! You might find one of these. Or, do your own thing! If you look at the list of Pelle projects on Ravelry, you'll find loads more ideas.

Using my yarn, my size large sweater required 1,174 yards/584 grams of yarn to complete. I added an inch of simple short rows about 3 inches into the raglan shoulder section to raise the back a bit, as I feel like that always improves the fit for me. I made the arms longer as I just have weirdly longer arms, and I set out to make the sweater several inches shorter than written in the pattern. But,as I started this project in September of last year, only finishing it up this past month after my health finally improved (You can see the blog post on that here), my sweater is now about 2 or 3 sizes too big. I originally wanted it to be a high hip-length sweater, for example, and, as you can see, it now is nearly a tunic! I don't plan to frog it or change it now! It is very cozy and I am just so happy to be able to finish it and wear it. To me, it is a symbol for a brighter future and how much better I am doing, now that I can resume my favorite pastime: knitting!

On a recent weekend trip with my husband to Astoria, Oregon (one of my favorite place in the whole world), I brought the sweater. It kept me warm and happy in the chilling and surprising wind that can suddenly blast off the Columbia River (The mighty Columbia never produces a gentle "breeze.") My husband was kind enough to take photos of me in the sweater in front of the Flavel House Museum, and I love how the green of the sweater plays with the green of the grass on the grounds ... of the Flavel House Museum (...in the house that Jack built... sorry ... had to make the joke...).

The back looks sort of sloppy now, but the short rows are
still there!!

I have a lot of knitted lovelies in the works, along with some sewing, too! Stay tuned for more knitterly eye candy and fun!

If you like this sweater, you can find more from Gabrielle Danskknit on Ravelry here, or on Instagram here!