I travelled for work every week in April. I realized while I was travelling that all my sweaters are colorful, on purpose because I like color, but I didn't have a simple black sweater that I could pack in my bag and wear multiple days. I mean I do have multiple of those from back in the day, but none that I had made myself. I made sure to buy black yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool for that exact purpose.

This yarn is Kashmir by Fiber Optic Yarn in Morticia which is a fingering weight yarn and comes in skeins of 420 yards. I've used this yarn before in other colors and love how soft it is. It's made of 80% merino wool and I often feel like merino wool is magic because it's somehow warm when it's cold, but also cool when its warm and you just need a light cover up.




This sweater took me a while because this stitch is intricate. There were more than a few times when I had to frog back a row to fix things. Due to that - I lost track of exactly how many stitches I cast on for the back panel and sides. I *think* it was 74 for the back and 34 for the panels, but I'm not sure. This does follow the design of most of my sweaters - back panel, 2 side panels, sew them together, add the sleeves, flip inside out, do a collar, and finally add pockets.




Stitches:
ch - chain
sk st - skip stitch
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
dc - double crochet
dc2tog - double crochet 2 together
shell - dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc, ch1, dc, ch1, dc, ch1, dc (6 dc with ch in between all in the same stitch)
bobble - yarn over, insert hook into the stitch and pull up, yarn over and draw up a loop, draw through 2 loops - do this 3 times then yarn over and draw through 4 loops on the hook






This stitch is called sprouts and it's done in multiples of 10 + 4.

Row 1: dc in the 4th ch from the hook ch 1, dc in the same stitch, ch 1, dc in the same stitch again, ch 1, * sk 3 st, sc in the next stitch, ch 3, sk st, sc in the next stitch, sk 3 st**, shell in the next ch. Repeat from * across endding at **, in the last stitch do half a shell - dc, ch, dc, ch, dc.
Row 2: ch 2, dc in the same dc, * ch3, sc in the next ch 1 space, ch 2, sc in the second ch space of the shell, ch 3**, bobble in the third chain space of the shell, ch 3, sc, in the fourth chain space of the shell, ch 2, sc in the next sc after the bobble. Repeat from * across ending with **. Dc2tog in the last chain
Row 3: Ch 3, * sc in the next ch 3 space, sk next ch 2 space, shell in the next ch 3 space, sk next ch 2 space, sc in the next ch 3 space**, ch 3, sk the bobble, sc in the next ch 3 space. Repeat from * across ending at **. ch 1, hdc in the last ch.
Row 4: Ch 3, sc in the next ch 1 sp, * ch 2, sc in the second ch space of the shell, ch 3, bobble in the third chain space of the shell, ch 3, sc, in the fourth chain space of the shell, sc in the next sc, ch 2**, sc in the next sc, ch 3, sc in the next sc. Repeat from * across stopping at **. Sc, ch1, hdc all in in the last chain Row 5: Ch 4, dc ch dc in the starting stitch, * sk in the next ch 2 space before the bobble, ch 3, sc in ch space after the bobble**, shell in the next ch 3 space. Repeat from * ending at **. In the last ch - dc, ch, dc, ch, dc (half a shell)
Rep rows 2-5 until you have your desired length.