I ripped up the box, flipped the flaps aside, and fell in love – hard!
It was our delivery of the autumn issue of Laine and beaming up at me was the cover featuring Autumn Forager by Jennifer Brou (link to Ravelry).
My favourite projects are the ones that lets me explore texture, and the Autumn Forager presented endless opportunities for exactly that. It is a striped jumper where you change colour but also stitch pattern alternating between the stripes. Your main colour creates a slip stitch rib band, where as your contrast colour makes the stockinette ruching band. Needless to say texture is the main attraction of this design. The construction is quite basic, it is a circular yoke jumper worked from the top down, the fit is comfortably loose with a positive ease of 8 to 15 cm. In choosing my yarns I decided I wanted to create even more contrast between the different stitch patterns, resulting in a rustic and fluff adventure – I chose Stolen Stitches Nua Sport (Frog on the Wall) providing a well defined rib band and The Fibre Co. Cirro (Celestial) to give a soft fluffy ruching band.
All the way through this project I’ve been motivated by the thought of actually wearing the jumper. I had such a clear vision of how it would suit me perfectly, and I’ve already dreamed up outfits from my wardrobe on how to pair the jumper with other garments. I did a few alterations which I thought would fit me more: I incorporated the short rows at the neckline into the neckline itself rather than the following ruching band, and I shortened both the body and the sleeves with a couple of stripes. I did all the measuring, tension swatching and trying on as I went along – but it turned out to be one-of-those-projects. I’d just cast off and woven in all my ends, eagerly trying on my Autumn Forager in front of the mirror I frustratingly had to conclude – it was all wrong!
The frustration didn’t – thankfully evolution has given me an extra card up my sleeve – my daughter, who loved the jumper the minute she noticed me casting on, and who had been admiring the progression of it from start to finish. She was absolutely over the moon to hear I’d made it for her, the smile on her face was invaluable! It was a perfect fit. Of course – as we all know – this had been my plan all along!
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