New Year, New Knitting

For my first project of the year I cast on an Austin Hoodie.  (It's knit from the bottom up, so what you see in the photo is the hem on the lower edge that I draped over Fifi's neck.)  The EatSleepKnit Yarnathon for 2026 is doing projects with hoods for the first quarter (there's more details at the website and at the Ravelry group, but basically stand alone hoods or balaclavas as well as hooded garments.)  Towards the end of the year I noticed that I have a lot of colorful cardigans and sweaters, but very few in neutral colors.  I had knit an Austin Hoodie years ago, but the yarn I used was itchy on my arms.  It felt fine as I was knitting it, but I tended not to wear the sweater for very long, which was unfortunate because it was really cute.  Fast forward 10+ years, and here we are doing it again!

I'm knitting it in Malabrigo Arroyo in Natural, which is a sportweight yarn.  The pattern is technically written for a fingering weight, but it's knit very loosely.  I checked the projects on Ravelry and there are a number of people who have used sportweight successfully, so I decided to go for it!  I am making a few other changes to the pattern though:

• I'm not knitting the garter stitch front bands as the pattern directs you to do when you knit the body.  The vertical edge of stockinette stitch (the stitch used for most of the body of the sweater) likes to roll to the wrong side.  With the narrow front bands as the pattern is written, this tends to roll them to the inside of the sweater.  I distinctly remember it happening on my sweater and I want my front bands to stay where I put them.  I plan to go back later and pick up stitches around the front and knit a ribbed front band.  This will not roll to the inside, and I can face the front bands with ribbon, which I really think add a lot to the stability of the front edges and they're just super pretty.  I've ordered some ribbon and when it arrives, I'll decide which one to use and I'll know how deep my front bands need to be.  In order to change my front bands like this, I had to adjust my stitch count on the fronts.
• I made the lower hem deeper than the pattern calls for.  I did this on my first Austin Hoodie and it counteracts the tendency of stockinette stitch to roll forwards on the horizontal edge.  Deeper hems just add a bit more weight to keep things where I want them.
• I will not double strand the yarn in the woven section as the pattern calls for.  In a sportweight yarn, I'm pretty sure that would make those sections bulletproof.  I'm actually playing with the idea of skipping the textured stitches all together and just knitting the whole thing in stockinette.  I'll decide that later though.
• Finally, I might add a single button or buttons to the front band.  Since I'll be doing those last, I can decide once I've blocked it and tried it on.

At the moment though, I'm just knitting away on it!  I don't have to make any major decisions yet, so I can just enjoy the process right now!