Prairie Park is partially inspired by a Denver-area conservation park, but is primarily inspired by a previous Knitty pattern, Tenney Park. I love its combination of different textures and the fairly unique addition of a front panel.

I’ve been spinning on a drop spindle for a couple of years, and in the past year committed myself to a new spinning wheel. Naturally, a flush of fiber purchases came next, including my to-date favorite colorway, Moody Rainbow. I eked out upwards of 400 yards of awesomeness, and it simply begged to be knit and worn – and it just had to be done up in a sweater.

To show off the delightful color changes, Moody Rainbow is paired with a commercially-found Naked colorway. In keeping with the original Tenney Park inspiration, Prairie Park features a sleek front panel and hip/wrist wraps, all done up with textured linen stitch. The handspun is strategically used in areas that can be a little more forgiving if tension is off a smidge, due to the potential for inconsistency in handspun.

Worked from the bottom up, with waist decreases and raglan sleeves. There are a couple short rows in the upper-back. The bottom is worked in the round, with the majority of the sweater worked flat after the panel split. For ease of seaming, it is highly recommended that you slip stitches at the beginning of each flat row for selvedge.