Swatched with the yarn I wanted to use and then modified the pattern to fit the gauge I was knitting (rather than other way around)… cast on 76 stitches.

3/17/14
Found THE perfect buttons at Portsmouth Fabric Co today. Can’t wait to sew them on and photograph the sweater. Turn out this only took 8 balls of Wayne and not 10, so I have a couple for my stash.

I love the look of the sweater. The hand of the yarn reminds me of cotton. It isn’t soft or stretchy. Must be the silk in it. I hope it will soften with wear and gentle washing. The sleeves are narrow - tight to pull on - but my mother is smaller than me and it should fit her nicely.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the contrast peek-a-boo pockets. Now I need to make myself one of these sweater. My husband thinks this is my best looking sweater yet. Pockets were made approx 4 inches wide and a bit deeper than that.

I knit the body 9 inches from underarms and then placed on scrap yarn 4 inches of stitches on either side. The next row, I cast on the same number of stitches and continued knitting until the end. I like the roll that gives the pockets at the top… however, if I hadn’t wanted the roll, I would have done a garter stitch for 4 rows of the pocket stitches before starting in again on stockinette I then went back with the contrasting yarn and did stockinette stitches for the inside of the pockets, picking up a stitch every 2 rows from the inside of the sweater to attach the pocket as I went. When casting off the pockets, I then left a long tail to use to sew the bottoms of the pockets to the body of the sweater.