Traveling with the Traveler

 I set a goal to finish the Traveler Shell (which *I* don't think is a shell at all, since a shell is a sleeveless sweater designed to wear under a jacket or cardigan) before my recent travels. And I did. 

I'd kind of lost the mojo on this sweater for a while. It's made of two fine yarns held together, and I needed to knit on US 3 needles to get gauge. It was a lot of stitches and took some care to make sure I was knitting with both strands on every stitch. The pattern of knit and purl rows asked for my attention without being interesting. But once I got to the point of separating the fronts from back to knit the sleeve, I was more excited to finish. Having a goal helped.

And I did travel in this Traveler. I wore it on the very long flight to and from South Africa. It had several good qualities for the journey. The bright pink color meant the other folks traveling with me could always find me in a crowd. It has pockets. And it was cozy but not hot for all those hours on the plane. The downside? It was scratchy around my neck. The fuzzy yarn was alpaca and silk which is usually soft enough for me, but maybe the Helix wool (Falkland Merino and Gotland wool) wasn't.  And it really wasn't the right sweater for my destination, where it was summer.

The yarn is the pattern specified Helix and Kumo from la Bien Aimée in Fluoro Morganite (very bright pink and very fluffy) and The Hotness (deeper pink).  I think I bought it when there was a 30% off sale on the La Bien website which could have been the excuse for the whole project.

I wish I'd taken a picture that shows that the front CAN hang straight. I took a lot of care to pick up the collar/front band stitches so there are the same number on each side so it will.

 Traveler Shell

• designed by Andrea Mowry (drea renee knits)
• 5 skeins la Bien Aimée Kumo in Fluoro Morganite (I have most of skein #5 left, if not all)
• 2 skeins la Bien Aimée Helix, color The Hotness
• Size 2 needles for the bottom ribbing, but I used US 3 for all the rest, include sleeve and front collar/band ribbing
• size 3 (46" actually garment measurement) 
• on Ravelry