I was lucky enough to be given this pattern book for some work that I did for my LYS :-) I love pretty much all the patterns in the book :-)
I was really eager to start making myself this stripey sweater as soon as I saw it, so I ordered the yarn straight away from Deramores.com. I would normally steer clear from any acrylic yarns to make a garment because I usually find the feel of it (both working with it and wearing it) quite revolting. However, I was given a ball of this Stylecraft Special DK and I actually fell in love with it! It’s really soft, has a lovely drape, and comes in a LOT of amazing colours :-)
28th September, 2011
Because I was using a different yarn than the one suggested in the pattern I knew it was going to be very important to do a gauge swatch. It came out at the correct gauge using the recommended hook size, so I was pretty happy with that :-) I took my measurements and decided that I would need to make the size Medium, according to the measurements given in the pattern… However, once I started, and did the first few rows I was thinking, “Hmmmm, this looks REALLY huge…” So I measured it, and it was only 20cm WIDER than the pattern said it should be… Huh? Okay, so I immediately thought I must have made a mistake with my gauge swatch, so I did another one, got the same result, which matched the gauge given in the pattern, so I ruled that out. Then I thought that maybe I had the wrong amount of stitches… nope they were correct according to the pattern. After a little bit of trial and error, and a few calculations I figured out I was going to need to make the Size Extra Small (?!). So that’s what I did. Not sure if the pattern has some sort of error??
So far I have completed the back. I followed the pattern exactly (it’s a very easy pattern). But once I had completed the back, I thought the armhole shaping looked a little shallow, so i measured it, and then measured around my arm/shoulder where the armhole would sit and discovered that I needed an 2 extra rows before the shoulder shaping began so that the armhole would be deep enough :-)
I have now begun the front. It’s looking really cool at the moment. Kind of hoping I’ll have it finished for the weekend :-)
P.S. I bet you’re all jealous because of ALL the ends I’m going to have to weave in… Right? LOL

29th Sept, 2011
Okay, so the weather here has been REALLY rainy and stormy and windy… and perfect for staying indoors and getting some crocheting done :-) So I have now finished the back, the front and 3/4 of one sleeve. I’m hoping that I will be able to finish off the other sleeve tonight, so all I’ll have to do tomorrow is sew it all together… I have a dreadful feeling that it might actually take me ALL day to sew in all those ends!! Arrrrrrgh! (runs screaming from the room)
P.S. The photograph really does not do the colours justice. This is what they really are: light grey for the band, then peacock teal, apple green, khaki, chocolate brown, cherry red, coral pink, violet, sky blue, then back to light grey again :-)

3rd October, 2011 I have now completed the back, the front and both sleeves. I just have to put it together, complete the neckband and weave in ALL THOSE ENDS! I think it could take me all day!
I ended up having to frog more than half of the first sleeve as I made an error quite early on in the sleeve (100% my fault and nothing to do with the pattern :-)
Hoping to be wearing this sweater by the end of the week though :-)
5th October, 2011 OMG… So. Many. Ends.
I’m up to 170 ends woven in so far… and all I’ve done is attach both sleeves at the shoulder and about 1/3 of one side seam… This pattern really should have come with some sort of insanity warning!!! It better look AWESOME when it’s finished!!! :-D

It’s finally finished!! I can’t believe it! It seriously took me SOOOOOO long to weave in all those little ends… over 300 of them! Insanity!
However I got to wear it at a party recently and it got a lot of positive comments and was really comfortable and warm to wear :-) I’m REALLY happy with it.

If I was ever crazy enough to make another one I would DEFINITELY modify the pattern so that I could work it in the round rather than back and forth in rows. It would halve the amount of ends to weave in and would be much faster :-)