Aire River

As you travel down along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, you're witness to some of the most beautiful and rugged coastline in the world. It's a coast road that tourists travel from all over the world to drive, and with good reason - it is spectacularly wild, sheer, foreboding and inviting all at the same time.  Nestled behind the coast road, and hidden down side roads are a number of just as spectacular camping spots - camping spots that we love to return to again and again. Camping spots that we've shared with friends, where we've made new friends and also visited alone, just by ourselves. These are the places that will figure prominently in my children's memories when they reminisce about their childhood trips spent in the SoulPad.  Aire River is home to one of these fabulous camping spots.

I actually knit the sample for this pattern over two years ago. The idea was something Lily and I arrived at together, with some consideration given to the many requests I was getting for a long sleeved version of Griffin. While Aire River borrows the mitred neckline from Griffin, it's probably more feminine in shape due to the A-lin shaping in the body and the flared sleeves.  I think when you know that, you can see how this one naturally developed.

When it came to testing, my group of faithful testers convinced me to grade it up to larger sizes than I usually do for my kid patterns as they suspected it would very much capture the teen market. And so I did. The size range is from 19 to 32 inches/48 to 81cm chest circumference with another 3 to 4 inches of positive ease in the pattern itself. It's a roomy snuggly sweater to wrap yourself up in as protection against the beach wind chill. 

Like the majority of my designs for kids, Aire River is knit from the top down. It uses a seamless raglan construction which makes for quick and easy knitting in the Aran weight yarn recommended for this pattern. It has some cute wee touches that I love; the fake side seams, the splash of contrast colour in the inseam pockets, the bell shaped sleeves, the shaping of the hood and of course, the mitred neckline. I don't think I'm done with the mitred neckline just yet, I really do love the way it looks and gives the opportunity to play with contrast yarn. In this instance, the Noro Sillk Garden was just perfect. I had a number of balls that I'd picked up as end of dye lots (I know!) fro $5 each and honestly, it didn't even matter that they weren't even the same colourway!
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