Here’s how things go sometimes.

You see a pattern you like. You keep thinking about it, then you really can’t stop thinking about it. You go find out about the yarn and decide that you pretty much can’t get along without making that sweater.

This is that sweater.

It’s called Granito. It was a huge crowd favorite in our MDK March Mayhem pattern championship. And this is Joji Locatelli, the designer of the sweater, wearing the sweater.

While we freely acknowledge that we are not as cute as Joji Locatelli, we do feel that her Granito pullover is one that we want to have in our rotation of go-to sweaters. It has so much to admire:

Top-down construction. A relaxed silhouette.

That dreamy gauge of 23 stitches to 4 inches. We call this the Gauge of Constant Wearing, because it is never too hot, never too heavy, always flattering.

Granito also features a pocket at each side, ever ready to either a) contain a small thing you need or b) give you the confidence that you could successfully harvest a few acorns and get them home in good order.

The second component of this pattern that so beguiles us is this yarn.

This is Milo by Manos del Uruguay. It is 65% merino wool and 35% linen.

Merino: soft. Linen: the great fiber of the gods, sturdy and pliable and eternal. Remember: if they can make the Shroud of Turin out of linen, well, it’s good enough for this sweater.

Let’s take a look at what this Milo yarn looks like. Up close ’n’ personal.

Natural. Creamy. The classic shade for summer.

Tundra. A warm brown with a bit of barn red to it.

Venezia. A red that doesn’t scream “RED.”

Potosi. Pale gray. Silver.

Baltico. Just a gorgeous blue with some fine, almost imperceptible color shifting in there.

Manchester. AKA The Color Joji Is Wearing.

Bizance. A pink of the sort we love: vibrant and rich. A pink even for the pink-shy amongst us. Is it fuschia? We don’t know, but we do know that there are summer flowers exactly this shade—petunias, impatiens—and we crave the colors of nature in our knitting.

So. We have brought in a glorious pile of this lovely yarn in hopes of encouraging you to take on your own Milo as a summer project that will be a worthy companion for your air-conditioned moments, for that moment when you think, Hey, there’s a nip in the air. For that moment right now when you realize that there’s never been a better time to take on a pattern by Joji Locatelli, in a yarn dyed in Uruguay by women in villages, whose names are handwritten on the tag of every skein of this yarn.

Joji + Milo. A designer in Argentina working with yarn from the country next door, Uruguay. We are bursting with pride to share this pairing with you. You can obtain Joji’s pattern straight from her, right here. And we have plenty of Milo for you, right here.