his yoke is easy

When I was in college choir, we learned a piece with the text "His yoke is easy, his burden light." It was biblical, though I don't know what passage, and I can't even remember the composer. It was probably Mendelssohn because I remember lots of counterpoint and moving notes and many hours of sectional rehearsals singing, "His yoke is e-he-he-he-he-he-he-he-heeeasy" and never quite nailing it because our director at the time was not so much detail-oriented and better at the big picture approach.

So anyway, I'm knitting another sweater for Afghans for Afghans, this one with a patterned yoke - hence the random choir memory (I know, the connection is tenuous at best. Just go with it, okay?)

I'm having such fun with this one. I'm working from a basic template in Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns  and inserted a color pattern into the yoke from Alice Starmore's book Charts for Color Knitting. You know, I've got all these great reference books (like those two I just mentioned) and I hardly use them; usually I'm test knitting or doing something so basic I just knit on the fly. This sweater has been so freeing, it really has. I'm following enough of a pattern that I'm confident the proportions will come out right, but the choices I've made for colors and pattern work are all mine.

I cast on for a 32" size thinking it should fit a 12-year-old child, but I'm starting to think it's coming out for a smaller kid, maybe 8-10 years old. That's still well within the size range A4A is collecting, so it's all good. It's going so fast I just may knit a third before the deadline, which is sometime in late July.

The knitting is so mindless and easy at first. You just knit tubes for the body and sleeves before joining them all for the yoke. That part is awkward and cumbersome, but by then I was ready to start the color knitting, so I have been quite motivated and have made fast progress. (Being stuck at home with a sick kid most of the week really adds to the knitting time, too.)

I know the bottom edges look messy, but don't fret! I chose to knit a hemmed edge. It just looks so clean, in my opinion. I haven't sewn those down yet, so there are rolling edges and long tails hanging out for the time being.

Here is a close-up of the yoke. I like the color combination, so bright and cheerful. It wouldn't work for me to wear, but I hope it pleases the child who will wear it next winter.