The Sweater

At about noon yesterday, The Sweater was finally finished. I used the exact yarn called for in the pattern, Knit Picks Andean Silk, in Hollyberry. Both my stitch gauge and row gauge were off in the US6 needles, so I went up to US8. I still couldn't get gauge, but decided to dive in anyway. I made the XXL size, in an attempt to compensate for the gauge problems, but that turned out to be a bad decision. The finished object is HUGE. Actually, the body is not too bad--larger than it should be, but still comfortable. However, the sleeves are way too long and too wide. I probably should have taken Christy's measurements before beginning, but that would have spoiled the surprise.

Anyway, here are some pics:



Back and sides blocking.


Closeup of pattern on the sides. Despite my careful counting, the left side ended up a bit shorter than the right side. It's not noticeable as long as she wears it buttoned up.


I left one of my row markers (aka piece of white yarn) in accidentally when I washed the left side. It turned pink, which I just realized you can't see very well in the picture. The yarn bled a lot as I was knitting. It colored my fingernails and my wood cable needle.


Sleeves blocking. Those are the side pieces on the left. They were dry by the time I started blocking the sleeves. This is Christmas Eve. I realized Christmas day that the sleeve caps were too short--by an inch. I ended up having to rip out both of them and reknit.


And here it is finished. We had Christmas with Kevin and Christy on New Year's, so I had an extra week to finish it (hence the reason it wasn't completed until yesterday).


Closeup of the buttons, which are not actually attached in the picture. I sewed them on the next day.


Here's the sweater, packaged and ready to wrap. I figure I spent so much time knitting the thing, I should spend some time on the presentation. Here's the inside of the card...


Sorry for the blur. I included an extra button on the left and a length of yarn on the right. The left says, "Wool, Alpaca and Silk. Hand wash only. Dry flat." and the right says, "Handknitted for you! by Beverly"

I'm glad it's finished. Christy seemed to really like it. The rest of the family was amazed that I had knitted the whole thing myself. In hindsight, I would have taken Christy's measurements first, and I would have used smaller needles and adjusted the pattern accordingly. The alpaca and silk in that yarn made it horribly inelastic and, I think, contributed to the largeness of the final product. Oh well. Live and learn.

On to bigger and (hopefully) better things.