Hello Sunshine

Yarn: Kona Superwash Merino Worsted, 

dyed with rabbit rubberbrush, mordant with iron.

Needles: US #7

I dyed the yarn with Rabbit Rubberbrush (added a tiny bit of iron as mordant to give it slight hint of green) over a year ago - fall 2010.  The color came out so gorgeously, so I waited for a solid idea to form before I cast on.
All along I knew I wanted to make a cable jacket with this yarn, but I just never realized a vision of fit and style. Finally I decided to just swatch and give it go. I dug it out from the bin and made some swatches of cables. I made up the cable stitches based on some cables in reference books and tweaked it so I'd get the size and shapes I wanted.  They were so basic and familiar cables that for sure they'd already been done before many times over.  I wavered back and forth about placements of different cables and finally settled on the larger cables closer to the center.

It was knitted one-piece, top-down in round with raglan style sleeves. Knowing I wanted big collars that could be folded over as turtleneck when buttoned, I began at the collar with 2x2 ribbing for 6", then began the body.  Not much glitches and it came out pretty much as I'd envisioned it, maybe a bit fitter than I originally thought.  But I do like the final fit a lot.

Something about hugging cables around the hips was never a very attractive look on me, and I wanted it to be a bit sporty, so I made the body length about 14" from underarm. It sits above the widest part of hips. Sleeves are 18" long.

I watched 5 seasons of Midsomer Murders while knitting this so I think I'm calling this one "Midsomer Sunshine."