And for my second FO today, the Antrorse sweater by Shannon Cook.

This pattern is from the brand new book JOURNEY by Shannon Cook and Jane Richmond. I was lucky enough to be able to test knit the Onward shawl also by Shannon. And as a very generous thank you gift, Shannon gifted me the JOURNEY ebook and along with a lot of others, Antrorse caught my eye and was added to my queue almost immediately. The pattern is available in a print & ebook set C$26.95 (~AU$29.17 + postage), ebook only C$21.95 (~AU$23.75) or individual Ravelry download C$6.95 (~AU$7.52).

This is my second completed knitted sweater, but the first with sleeves. And as scary as knitted in sleeves sounded, they really weren’t that hard. The Antrorse is suggested to be knit in a worsted weight yarn. I used Bendigo Woollen Mills Harvest 10 ply yarn in the colourway Laurel. The Harvest yarn is a blend of 82% wool/10% alpaca/4% bamboo/4% viscose. I has a gorgeous flecked appearance that lends an individuality to the garment. I think this yarn is actually more of an aran weight but I got gauge first time so either it is more worsted or my gauge is really tight (probably more likely). Whichever it was it worked up really quickly. I completed this sweater in 14 days!

This sweater is supposed to be worn with I think it was 2-3″ of positive ease so I made the size to fit a 44″ inch bust which gave a finished bust measurement of about 47″. Probably the only thing I would change about this sweater is to add waist shaping. I’m not really at a level where I can do that with my knitting though so it’s just knit straight with no decreases coming down from the bust. The only issue I had with this pattern was with the stitch count on my size and with further investigation I noticed that all the larger sizes seemed to have incorrect stitch counts in the pattern. They didn’t add up. If you’re really interested, you can see my full explanation on my Ravelry notes here. I just soldiered on and my finished item and all appears correct so I guess I’m good! I made the arms longer than suggested as I like my sweater sleeves to cover my wrist and the top of my hand. The pattern said 16.5″ length but I went up to 17 3/8″ length.

The sweater has a funnel neckline that fastens with buttons. As you can see I haven’t quite got up to the buttons part. I had a quick look when I was in Spotlight last and none of the buttons seemed right. I may need to go and have a hunt on Etsy for some more unique, stand out buttons. Anyone have any suggestions for great buttons?

I just love the chevron pattern that works it’s way down the front of the sweater. Antrorse means “directed forward and upward” so the motif fits well. 🙂

Very, very pleased with this sweater. It is very warm however so unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be wearing this much until it is very cold out. Although, it’s cool and breezy today so I might give it a crack when I go out to post an Etsy sale. See how I go! 😉