Well, actually I finished back in July and am just now blogging about it. But here’s the update anyway.

Began July 2013, I have finally finished this epic sweater.

I hope you enjoy this sweater, little brother, ‘cause I’m tempted to keep this handsome piece of knitting for myself. (And I might have to knit one for myself!)

And now for the details.

Yarn
I cannot compliment Mountain Meadow Wool enough for their fantastic yarn. The yarn knit up into a plush, dense, elastic fabric. I honestly felt like I was holding wool velvet. The yarn has excellent stitch definition. Unless you’re knitting a loose gauge, don’t expect drape. Expect a soft, moldable fabric with plenty of body.

It also blocks like a dream. Somehow it gets even softer without losing any stitch definition.

My forever favorites are the company’s natural grey and cream shades. The dark grey has steel blue and brown tones in it. How the sheep grow wool like this, how Mountain Meadow knows how to blend it all together--what a thing of beauty.

Pattern
The pattern itself is delightful to knit and fairly simple to follow. I probably wouldn’t recommend it as a first sweater project. The time commitment and amount of cabling could prove daunting. But if you know how to cable, don’t mind learning tubular cast-on, and a couple hours of seaming, it’s really a simple sweater to knit up.

Modifications
Used Mountain Meadow Wool’s light grey wool in same weight as the main color (worsted) for the tubular cast-on waste yarn. I then left the waste yarn in, so there is a “bead” of contrasting color on edges of the cuffs and bottom hem. I think it’s a small but sharp detail.

For the turtleneck section, I knit the garter-stitch placket in the light grey, and kept the rest of the neck in dark grey. Also, I bound-off the neck stitches in the light grey, so all of the edges had the light grey bead. I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Sewn Bind Off for elasticity and stretch.

Worked the collar an extra 1” deep, so it was nice and tall. I skipped the snaps for the collar. I may add them later if my little brother wants them. The split turtleneck looks sharp enough on its own, I think.

…

I’ve been adding more photos of my brother modeling the sweater. Brennan Burling is a fab, snappy photographer and did a great job capturing my brother living and laughing and enjoying life in Hugo.

To sum it up, Hugo has been one of the most lovely, satisfying projects I have ever knit.