Norwegian Sweaters X 4

My brother and his family love faire-isle sweaters, but are violently allergic to wool and don't like silk. After my sister-in-law fell in love with the Dale of Norway pattern for the Norwegian Ski Team Sapporo 2007, I spent over 6 months looking for the perfect substitute yarn. The women's sweaters are in a lighter gauge than the men's sweaters! So, not only did I have to find non-wool and non-silk substitute yarns, but also it couldn't be in baby colors, and there had to be two weights in the same color ways. Finally, I found the Sirdar Snuggly yarns in the double knitting weight for the men, and the 4-ply weight for the women. This yarn is perfect for this family-on-the-run, as it is full acrylic: it can be machine washed and dried! With my niece and nephew both playing serious level team hockey, the whole family will be warm watching all the games in the ice arenas.

My sister-in-law's sweater was started in late September, and my niece's was begun mid October. I just finished my nephew's sweater, and will be casting on my brother's sweater soon. His will be mostly tan with accents from the colors on the rest of the sweaters. Considering that the entire sweater is knit using US 2 and US 3 needles, I feel that I am completing them quite speedily.

When I was weaving in all the ends, I decided I didn't like one of the rows of color work on my nephew's sweater. I changed it by pulling out one stitch at a time and used the duplicate stitch method to replace it with the lighter tan. While still light against the gray, I like the new color much better.