This was my second top down yoke sweater - first was by Isabelle Kraemer Humulus - and I felt confident enough to tackle this one with a lot of color work. I really liked the motif.

Pros

• able to obtain gauge with no problem

• completely in love with my color
  choice, got SUPER lucky to find the
  extra skeins of discontinued
  Gloria/Pescador from For Yarn’s Sake
  in Beaverton, OR via online store

• Like how the sleeves turned out with the color work, that really impressed the folks I shared pics with, made me feel fancy - the I-cord bind off was very well received

• Again - Malabrigo’s Rios yarn is SO soft and so great to knit with, the color is outstanding here in this peacock, it just rolls to and fro through greens like plumage, I just love looking at it. The stitch definition is so nice, too, it makes my knitting look smart, smart, smart.

Cons and other boo hoos

• Finished the yoke and it was about 6” too long! I mean, it went on and on and on and on and on…and I kept knitting. My gauge was fine…but when I tried it on, the dreaded poncho was in full effect. I decided to take back 15 rows (FIFTEEN!!) which gave me the perfect yoke depth and due to the motif, it doesn’t look out of place at all, frankly, rather like it.

• The sleeves are VERY generous - you can see that in one of my in progress photos - the circumference of them are very ample at the top and throughout the length. Because I am a beginner at sweaters, I don’t feel confident knowing how to modify the decreases to get to a preferred sleeve fit (straight, tapered, snug, etc); and looser feels safer to me, as I know I don’t want anything tight anyway so I just knit it as written.

• Regarding the cuffs - I knew they were going to be huge and wide, even if I knit the color work in the same needle size, so I sized down to US 5 to do the sleeves and they miraculously tapered perfectly and come down gently and to much less air just below my wrists. I was very happy with how my modification gamble paid off.

• I have yet to decide if I stopped short on the body and hem, it seems short, but I will block and wear it and see if I think I should add on. I think it will be fine. No, I haven’t blocked it yet ….was too excited to start another sweater down the line.

Overall
*****************
I’m currently nearly complete with three of this designer’s sweaters and I have decided that the gauges always seem difficult to obtain with whatever yarn I’m using, even if I’m using the same weight yarn that pattern calls for, the gauges just seem out of reach. Which, I believe, as I’ve knitted through several sizes, all of them a little too big, yokes a little too long, sleeves a little too big, fitment just not quite as good as I think it should be. I am a very neutral knitter - I typically don’t have any problem getting correct gauges, but these patterns have sent me to the swatching once, thrice too often.

In rebellion - and a need for fresh garment design and new challenge, I am going to be casting on Jaycee cardigan next and I feel like I’ll be able to knit to those guages with a lot less fuss (because I knit so many swatches trying to get gauge for all of these Steingass sweaters that I pretty much have my yarn weights/needle measures memorized at this point!)