My shoulders are quite narrow, so I wanted to make the 36” size for the shoulders, and then increase to 38” for the bust. The pattern says that if you want to add extra room at the bust, you should work extra increases on the increase row after the charts, but doesn’t say how to work this with the short rows that come afterwards - if I’d increased from the 36” size yoke (195sts) to the 38” size (255sts) in one row, I’d have been increasing about every three stitches, which seemed a bit much. I couldn’t stagger the increases because of the short rows starting, so I did an extra two rows before starting the short rows, and increased again on the first (knit) row of these. It’s pretty much worked, although it does look a bit wavy under the yoke when it’s laid flat - it looks okay on though.

I didn’t do the border as wide as in the pattern, I just did two garter ridges then cast off, and I did nine button holes, just because that seemed to look about right. I picked up three stitches for every four rows up the front, largely because I didn’t read the pattern and that’s what I usually do - it seems to have worked okay.

I did the body before the sleeves, just because I prefer to work that way, and I carried on increasing at the bottom of the body until just before the edging, to accommodate my large hips ;)

I used just over eight balls of the main colour, about 820m. The Drops yarn is lovely - the teal colour was what first caught my eye, along with the price (£2 per ball for pure wool, what’s not to love?) but it was also very nice to work with, without any knots. It does grow when you wash it though - definitely best to wash your swatch!

Overall I’m happy with how this came out, I would make it again, but I’d probably just go with the 38” size from the off next time, and have a wider neck.

Swatch 1 - 4.5mm needles - before blocking 24sts/30 rows, after blocking 22sts/30 rows

Swatch 2 - 5mm needles - before blocking 22sts/ 28 rows, after blocking 20sts/28rows. Looks like I’m using 5mm needles!