Oshima

This was by far the largest Christmas present I made. But, full disclosure, it wasn't supposed to be a Christmas present. It was supposed to be a present for my mom's birthday back in September, but I clearly didn't finish it in time. So, Christmas present it was. Oshima has been on my "to knit" list for some time now, and I initially wanted to make it for myself. The more I thought about it, the more I knew my mom - the lover of all things oversized & turtlenecked - would love it even more than I would.

(Please excuse the terrible cell phone photos. It was night, and it's hard to get my mom into taking photos, so I did the best I could.)

She requested the size 38, which gave her plenty of ease. While making it, I felt the sleeves were just insanely huge. I mean, I knew there was supposed to be positive ease, but these were just enormous. She kept saying it was fine - she wanted it oversized. And honestly, when I see her wear it, it looks fine on her. I think it's just a little oversized for my liking.

I used Brown Sheep Nature Spun for this sweater, and it was really a pleasure to knit with. It's really soft, and has great bounce to it. And to top it off, I found it on sale at one of Asheville's many yarn stores - this whole sweater cost about $25! I feel like this is one of those yarns that is overlooked. It's American grown and milled, and at less than $8 for a 245 yard skein - it's quite a deal.

 

 This was my first time doing brioche stitch, and while I appreciate the squishy fabric it produces, as well as the neat look of the increases and decreases, I don't find it as addicting as apparently everyone else on the Internet (don't hate me!). I'm not sure if it's because it's a fad right now, or what, but I just didn't really love it. It could also be that the turtleneck of the sweater needed to be almost as long as the body of the sweater, and it just got a little old after a while. I'm not entirely sure. Seeing it in a pattern wouldn't turn me off from the pattern, but I'm not jumping on the brioche bandwagon just yet.

Overall, I'm happy with how this turned out, even though I didn't love knitting it at times. It looks great on my mom, and she feels super cozy when she wears it, which is always a bonus. This is the third sweater I've made for her, and I'm sure it won't be the last!