10-25-2024

Sleeves done! They are very roomy, but since yarn is 55% alpaca that’s probably a good thing. Knits up quickly.

11-08-2024

FINISHED and I am going to LOVE this sweater! It is warm, lightweight, soft, and love the fit.

Snefnug: this is a blown-in yarn, so the cotton tube is cotton (not poly as some are) and it does NOT stretch lengthwise, which means the alpaca behaves itself and doesn’t turn it into a thin maxi coat. I have enough leftover (I bought extra in Norway because of the difficulty of getting more of the same color way) that I hope to make a cowl and maybe even a hat with the extra skein of cream.

I still have a problem figuring out how wearing ease is going to look in a given yarn on my body. I love the result on this one, but had thought it would look a bit roomier. However, I LOVE the way it looks on and think if it were roomier it might not look as good. There is about 8” of wearing ease at the hips and 11” at the bust, so it actually turned out the size I was aiming for!

I decided, for once, to follow the pattern completely. I’ve never had sleeves this long OR so wide, but I am really liking that. It means they won’t bag out at the elbow, and even sitting at my laptop with arms bent, the cuff reaches to the very top of my hand.

There is also some REALLY CLEVER short row shaping in the body’s upper yoke/shoulder zone and top background bands on the sleeves. As a result, there is less excess under the arms, better fit and absolutely precise alignment on the sleeve stripes with the body stripes. Exceptionally well designed and written.

Buttons: I found some toggles, bought one, tested it on a practice buttonhole and it worked. BUT, once I mail ordered more (local shop didn’t have enough and nothing else local shops have quite worked) and sewed them on, they are too long and thick to go through the buttonhole. My choices are let the buttons dangle so I can fit them through (without wearing out the buttonhole) or buy new buttons. They should arrive soon. Will post new pics when they are here.

Lesson: test the button into buttonhole by sewing it to something!