My requisite Fall 2006 big bulky knit

I've been seeing tons and tons of HUGE sweaters around lately and they all look amazing, cozy and really, really, expensive. Seriously, check these ones out (from Anthropologie naturally):

Ice Fishing sweater coat

Plaits cardigan

Radiowave sweater coat

Since I am not made of money, I decided to steal one. Ok fine, not true. I decided to make a big sweater on my own! Coincidentally, last winter I had a hankering for big bulky yarn, so I bought myself a sweater's worth at Romni (out of a gift certificate that my awesome friends gave me). But by the time I got around to looking at the yarn again, it was spring and I was ready to move on to tiny little cropped cardigans and cotton vests. Cue August/September, when I had just moved to a new city and needed some comfort knitting ASAP. Voila:



This sweater was superfast, supereasy, and supersatisfying. The pattern is Laura from Rowan's Big It Up, but Rowan Big Wool is big money, so I instead used some awesome yarn whose name I cannot tell you because I foolishly threw away the ball bands. The gauge for the mystery yarn is slightly smaller than for Big Wool, so I ended up knitting up size medium on 10 mm needles instead of 12 mm. One problem with the pattern was that in my version at least, there were no instructions for button hole placement. I managed to figure out the perfect button hole (a neat and tidy yarn over button hole) for the yarn and placed those buttons and holes myself. The huge tortoise shell buttons I ended up using (and which I think are perfect) are from an awesome hole-in-the-wall button shop on Queen West just east of Spadina. Seriously, if you are in Toronto and in need of buttons, go there. They have EVERYTHING. One more non-action shot before I go: