Courage. She pushed the hat back off her forehead yet again as it slid down, obscuring her line of sight. A lone wild fern she’d tucked into it stood off the side. He had always loved them. She still remembered his Boston fern that hung in the kitchen window and how the morning sun had illuminated its fronds, streaming through motes of farmhouse dust. Sunlight streamed tonight, too, on a raw and chilly autumn evening. Each tree lining the hills was a wildfire of color. Cows dotted the pasture as she sighed and leaned against the large white fence, taking it in.

Fall was about fresh starts and reinventing. It made her feel sharper, more alive. A little raw like the cold, but in a way that painted everything vivid. The beauty before her made her heart ache, ache for the melancholy beauty here that so perfectly painted life. It was dark and difficult and cold, but beautiful, breathtaking, and life affirming all braided together. It was ups and downs and mountains and pines and ferns, all angled and beautiful. Tomorrow she would put on her father’s too-big hat, and let her heart draw her woodward, to the ferns and the trees and the trails. Tomorrow she would cling to those small and simple symbols that said finding joy does not have to mean the absence of pain. At the very deepest, in her core, she knew that being courageous wasn’t about avoiding the difficulty, but about embracing it alongside the joy.

830, 885, 995, 1110, 1220, 1325, 1440, 1550, 1665, 1770 yards / 760, 810, 910, 1015, 1115, 1210, 1315, 1415, 1520, 1620 meters

This sweater is intended to be worn with 3-4 inches / 7.5-10 cm of positive ease at full bust. Select the finished size that best matches your desired ease. Sweater is worked flat to start and then joined in the round at the front when the neck shaping is completed. The rest of the sweater is worked in the round, from the top down, seamlessly.