f.o.: birch pullover.

This Birch by Pam Allen was so fast (despite some hiccups with the color work which I will discuss). I've been wanting to knit it for years but for some reason never cast on. I had a gift card so I bought the Quince and Co Owl Tweet (soot for the main) and Quince and Co. Owl (snowy for the contrasting) at Gather Here in Cambridge back in August.

The Pain & Simple Knits book has been on my shelf for years--and I knit the Ash Pullover from it this summer (which was such a fun knit but took me FOREVER). Let me tell you what happened with Birch, though. Despite this being a super fast knit (I was nearly done in a matter of a couple days), I had to rip out the bottom two major sections of color work. The first bottom section I knit entirely all the while thinking as I went "huh, mine looks opposite to the finished project" and just plowed onward without stopping to figure out why. AN ERRATA. ONLINE. That I didn't think to check on since I had the book in hand and I don't own many knitting books anymore.

The colors in the chart on the original publication were swapped. FHJKSHJFHkJDSHFMNBbfhGUhdbannbjkdghfuifh. Yes, that's some serious frustration. Once I got the .pdf errata queued up on my phone, ripped the entire thing back, and reworked that chart, I thought I was golden.

Um. Nope. On the second chart, I knit the first two rows of the color work in the opposite color, so there would be no band of white along the bottom of the zig zag, and I didn't realize my mistake until the entire chart was complete and I was knitting the last two rows in white at the top of the section. fJDHKJHknfbajkhdjkHHbfbn. So, I ripped back again.

At the end of the day, this was a labor of love. You aren't doing anything right if you don't have to rip back your knitting from time to time to get it just perfect, or the best fit, or whatever it may be. So, there's that.

And guess what? This fits like a damn dream. It's gorgeous. I love everything about it and I'd definitely knit it again. I kind of want to knit a sweater with just the band around the cuff that's there and the collar, with the rest solid. I think that would be simple and beautiful.

I'm rather displeased that Quince and Co. isn't treating it's former creative Leila Raven well right now. So this project, being a Quince project, is hard for me to deeply love on right now. Total bummer.

Eventually, snaps of it on me in all it's glory. For now, here it is blocking and after I finished the body and yoke. Ravelry notes here, as always.