Didn’t have a super bulky yarn on hand, but wanted to use up stock yarn. Making this sweater using 3 strands of Berroco Comfort Worsted Weight yarn on a size 19 needle to give me the closest gauge to the pattern. It’s knitting up at approx. 2.1 sts/inch. I have wider hips and a smaller waist. So casted on more stitches for the hips then slightly decreased for the waist.

CO 88 sts. Placed marker & joined in the round. Knitted approx. 5 3/4” then shaped the sides. Shaping rows:
Row 1: Using k1, k2Tog, k to last 3 sts on balancing side then ssk, k1, k to end. (86 sts)
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: as row 1 (84 sts = ~ 40” circumference)

Continued in pattern, following the instructions for the 42” Bust, 84 sts).

Helpful Tip:
I found knitting on large needles to be a bit tasking. Therefore, after a while I decided to switch to my Denise Interchangeable needles to speed things along and make it a little easier on my wrists. For this, I used a size 15 needle for the left side of my circular needles & the size 19 needle for the right side (the side that determines the gauge). The stitches easily glided across the smaller needle as I knitted onto the size 19 needle. I thought this was going to be a bit time consuming when I had to switch to flat knitting for the sleeves because that required me having to swap the needle tips back and forth between knit & purl rows. But surprisingly, it truly wasn’t because the needle tips quickly and easily snap on and off the cord.

The video link below is an excellent tutorial about knitting in the round and I found it very beneficial for two main reasons. 1st, it has a wonderful tip about how to join stitches in the round while avoiding the jogged step at the join! 2nd, at about 4:34 in the video, she introduces the concept of switching the left hand needle to a smaller needle while keeping the right hand needle the gauge needle size.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja61VrwD7t8

I love this sweater! However, after wearing it I learned that the bulkiness/weight of the sweater combined with the wide off the shoulder neckline has confirmed my concerns about whether I’ll fidgit with keeping this sweater on & up above “the girls”. ;) To remedy this situation, I hand-sewed a rope elastic around the inside of the neckline about 2-3 stitches below the start of the collar ribbing. Whoala! Problem solved.