Sleeves - My sizing choices I made while knitting the body proved to be spot-on. The underarm isn’t too tight and there’s plenty of room for me to raise my arms without the whole sweater shifting around. My arms are fairly thin so I decreased at a different rate near the shoulder/bicep (faster) and wrist area (slower) (I knit full-length long sleeves). I had planned to knit the sleeves long enough for thumb holes but now that I see how the sweater lays on my wrists, I think they’d be too bulky, so I’m not going to bother. And anyway, I’m about out of yarn and might not even have had enough to knit them even if I felt they’d look good.

I have truly enjoyed knitting this sweater. The yarn is one of my all-time favorites. The pattern was a little challenging with the “at the same time” instructions but once I got it sorted out on my knitting row counter app (My Row Counter, premium version) I had no troubles keeping track of things whatsoever.

The lace sections are a bit challenging in which to fix mistakes but once I figured out the easiest way to do so was to drop down the entire block of five lace stitches and work them all back up one row at a time, it was pretty simple to fix things as needed. My first fix went slowly but my second and third fixes took much less time. (Honestly I probably could have left it alone but I’m too much of a perfectionist to leave it be.)

Sizing - I am between the Medium and Large sizes. For me my shoulders and stomach were Medium and my bust and armhole base area was Large. I haven’t actually knit on the sleeves yet so hopefully I made the correct call on the sizing. I tried everything on multiple times as I went and either used Wonder Clips from my sewing box or the help of my husband to pinch the armholes closed to see whether or not I needed additional increases to make things fit properly at the bottoms of the armholes. I did end up increasing to the Large size so as to ensure I’d be able to lift my arms while wearing the finished sweater, but almost immediately decreased back down to the Medium size as soon as I had knitted past the fullest point of my bust. My hopes are that if I end up having extra slack in the armpit I’ll be able to fix that in the process of seaming the armholes closed and picking up stitches for the sleeves.

Bind-off choice - At the time I’m writing this update I’m nearly done with the body. I did pause and knit on the neckline once I got to midriff length because I wanted to make sure the scoop wasn’t too “scoopy” (deep) lol (and it was perfect). I used JSSBO for the neckline as I first just did a standard bindoff and I felt it was pulling in too much, making an egg shaped neckline instead of a |_| shape, the latter of which is my preference.

Length - I knit the body length of this sweater about four inches longer than the pattern dictates as I intend to wear this sweater with black leggings and want to have some coverage on my rear.

For those contemplating this pattern and wondering whether or not the lace holes are too see-through - YMMV but when I wear this with a nude/skin-toned bra or a bra in a color that is similar to the yarn color, I feel comfortable and confident wearing it as the holes are small enough to keep things feeling less “exposed.” Therefore I don’t intend to wear this with a camisole. I have tried it on with a variety of bra colors and felt those colors will be the best choice for me. If you require a strong open block for fitting purposes the holes may expose more but I don’t intend to stretch the lace open too much in my blocking process so I think it’ll be just fine.

Bought this yarn a long time ago with the intent of it becoming my first sweater. But, then I moved and yarn was packed and it became lost in the abyss that is my storage shed. Somehow I found it and so now it’s going to be my Quarantine Knitting. Turns out this will be my second sweater as meanwhile I made something else, but that’s fine! Looking forward to using this yarn which I LOVE, hand dyed by Kim from WSK.

Gauge - I tend to knit on the tight side compared to many and this project was no exception. As usual I had to use much larger needles than the pattern calls for in order to get gauge. Also as is typical for me, my row gauge was “close but a tiny bit off” but I knew I could try things on and produce a sweater that would work well for me. To ensure this, I tried the sweater on between most waist increases and decreases to make sure I was adjusting shaping at a point on my body that made sense.