"that is the most canadian sweater ever"

so, last fall i had many cryptic posts about a mystery surprise knitted christmas present i was working on. but once it was done, i never somehow got around to posting photos here! there are many and numerous step-by-step pics on ravelry, but i hadn't taken a decent photo of the grateful recipient, and then we had such a mild spring and early summer he hadn't worn it in a while.

but lo and behold, the advent of june appears to have brought with it an early autumn (i hope i'm kidding), so out it came! how gratifying when we were out last night and a friend of his was amazed (that is where the quote in the title of this post came from) and impressed that i had actually made it myself.

this afternoon i got a few snaps!

inspired by this sweater belonging to grant lawrence, i knit it over the course of three months of subway rides and work lunch hours, never pulling it out at home unless my husband was guaranteed to be gone for hours. i used just about 8 bales of briggs & little country roving (with the leftovers going to the invadin ur space sweater i'm currently working on for the kiddo).

so without further ado, here it is, modelled by the man it was made for: