After almost three months of knitting, I finally finished my first full-size sweater! The pattern is the Nurtured Sweater by Andrea Mowry, and my yarn is 100% wool in Cascade 220’s “sparrow” color.

I’ve made baby sweaters and jackets but was a bit intimidated by full-sized garments. Baby clothes are forgiving: you just want to knit a slightly larger size so if your gauge is off, they’ll grow into them. With adult clothes, there are a lot of variables, which means a lot of things can go wrong. Plus, this sweater had an interesting slip-stitch pattern which added another layer of difficulty.

Even though I ran into a handful of problems and there are a few small mistakes, I’m incredibly proud of this sweater. I love the way it fits, I love how warm it is, I love the color, and I love the mossy texture of the stitches. I like to name my knitting projects and I’ve named this one my “secret garden sweater” because both the color and texture remind me of a garden just coming to life.

I’m now working on a colorwork sweater for Michael (my first colorwork project!) and swatching for Jake’s Christmas/birthday sweater.

Jake and I celebrated his birthday with a date at our favorite local restaurant. We love this place so much: they had a birthday card waiting for us, and gave us a celebratory spumoni.

We are working through the lingering traces of our colds, so we’ve been resting and only doing small projects around the house. We still aren’t fully moved in — the master bedroom and both bathrooms need a lot of work — but rest is taking priority right now.

The weather has been delightfully chilly (just in time for my finished sweater!) and we’ve had some glorious sunsets. We’ve had some beautiful evenings out by the fire pit with my parents.

As I make dinner and Michael plays (or hangs on my leg, wanting to help), I’ve been turning on some quiet folk music or a podcast as I work and the sun begins to set.

It’s almost as if the sun is trying to make up for the time change and the frosty mornings. Watching the golden evening light play around our kitchen and living room has made me fall in love with our little cottage even more.