A Manly Sweater

 

For my grandnephew Bug's 13th birthday, the present planning process followed its usual course. The present was going to consist of a sweater and some small fun or useful thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

I searched Ravelry for a suitable pattern, and soon decided on the 251-2 Harbor Horizon pattern from Drops. It's clearly meant to be a take on the classic fisherman's sweater (note the shoreline background and the "old salt" type model), but could also do very well for a boy just going into the eighth grade in a landlocked Ontarian county. Such is the versatility of classic knitwear! 

As to yarn, I visited Romni Wool and bought 650 grams of Drops Karisma in Dark Grey. I wasn't crazy about the idea of an all grey sweater as I could only picture it looking rather boring and drab, but that Dark Grey was the only shade that the store had enough of in an affordably priced DK that would work for a young boy's sweater. 

 

 

 

 

The completed sweater in a men's size small. As you can see, I didn't knit an all grey sweater after all. I looked through my DK stash box to see what might work as a stripe in the neckband, cuffs, and waistband. I had some cream DK, but didn't seem to have any DK in a colour that would work with it, so I checked my fingering yarn box, and found some wine fingering that would work well if knitted double strand. I think it worked out well, and that the stripes did quite a bit to lighten, brighten, and add visual interest to this sweater while keeping the look classic. Another advantage of adding these stripes was that it cut down the cost of the project. With the addition of those contrast stash yarns, I was able to complete this pullover with only twelve of the thirteen skeins I had bought. The thirteenth skein can be returned for store credit, or as I like to think of it, a down payment on a future project. 

My only concern was that I had made the sweater too large. Bug is quite small for his age and I really ought to have made a size 13 or 14, not a men's size small. He will surely grow into it sooner or later, but no kid wants to wait a year or two to get to use a birthday gift.  

 

 

 

 

 

I usually buy the trinket part of children's gifts at the dollar store, but this year Dollarama failed me when it came to my finding something fun or cool for an adolescent boy. I tried the toy section of Walmart next, looking specifically to see if they had any science kits first, because Bug is interested in science. This inexpensive "grow a mini crystal cactus" kit seemed like something he might enjoy. 

And that was a birthday gift that hopefully hit the spot for a 13-year-old boy in terms of being fun, educational, handsome, and manly (if possibly a little too manly).