I’ve had the Cedar Point sweater by Espace Tricot on my to-do list for a while now. Which is weird, because it has a lot of things about it I usually avoid:
I don’t usually make yoke sweaters for myself because they often don’t fit me well.
I don’t usually like making top-down sweaters because they get awkward when it’s time to work the sleeves (with an entire sweater hanging off the sleeve in progress).
I don’t usually go for unfinished edgings for myself. This last one is just because I had CURLING EDGES ARE BAD stamped on my brain at some point. It has softened to CURLING EDGES ARE CUTE ON KIDS BUT NOT YOU, which I suppose is a sort of improvement.
But I kept coming back to look at the pattern, and coming back to it, and I even saw a knockoff for sale in a shop window in my neighbourhood a couple of winters ago. Finally, after perusing every single version posted to Ravelry (and there are lots), I decided to make a cream & charcoal version over the beige & black original, because on top of all those other reservations I don’t like beige against my face because it makes me look sallow.
For the yarn, I used one strand each of Winter Glow Solid and Diablo. This more-or-less matches the original yarns called for, just more economically. Altogether the sweater has wool, mohair, and synthetics in it, and feels super soft with just a slight aura of fuzz. The fabric came out very light and thin, despite being made from the double strand.
Alterations: I made the sleeves first, then finished the body (opposite for a typical top-down pattern). I also made the sleeves full-length instead of bracelet-length, because my current set of gloves don’t have gauntlets.
Amazingly, for once in my life my gauge was a little too loose, so I wound up making one size smaller than I had originally planned, and it’s still generous. I can see myself wearing this instead of a coat on a crisp fall day. Ideally I’ll be sitting on a patio, sipping a warm beverage. Later, when the annual southern Ontario deep freeze hits, the sweater will be a welcome extra layer under my coat.
There is something about this design. I got a lot of compliments from friends, family, and random strangers when I was making it. It’s a very basic design — it would work great as an introduction to round yoke sweaters and stranded colourwork — but something about it just appeals.
Because of its generous shape and sizing, the round yoke fits over my shoulders very comfortably. I finished the neck and cuffs without any edging as the pattern instructs, but decided to hem the bottom edge. It makes the edge lie flat and bell out in a very pleasing way when worn.
The pattern is excellently written, and free! Espace Tricot has a whole collection of free patterns on Ravelry, and they all cover a wide range of sizes (plus there’s enough information to draft a missing size or make alterations if you need to). I’ve already got some other ones in mind to make.