LOVE this sweater! I am a large person, between a 1x and 2x is my usual size. I made the largest size and it fits perfectly and looks really good on. I know I will get a lot of wear out of this heavy sweater in winter. Winters in S.California are not that cold, so this will replace a coat or heavy jacket.
This is the first adult sweater I have knitted. I used fewer buttons, and was torn because I wanted to use really nice buttons, but chose plain ones so that the knitting would stand out, instead of buttons attracting all the attention.
Otherwise I followed the pattern. Oh, I made the sleeves slightly longer than the pattern.
I made the Tree of Life Afghan before making the sweater, so this was not that hard because I already was familiar with knitting the trees.
P.S. I joined Weight Watchers and lost 35 lb in the past year. YAY! Sooo…..I carefully shrank the sweater by washing it and putting it in the dryer, and just pulling it out of the dryer every few minutes to check on it. Kind of like watching a pot on the stove and stirring occasionally. When it looked about right, and was still damp, I laid it flat, and pulled it into to the desired shape. Especially pulling the arms to be longer. Let it dry. And now I still have a perfect winter jacket. I wear it every single day.