Just in Time for February

Just in time for February I have actually finished my sweater. 

Pattern:  February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne

Yarn:  Patons Silk Bamboo in Moss (it leans a little more toward yellow than the above picture)

Needles: Size US 8, 32" I think?

Button:  vintage, out of my grandmother's notions

This is my first garment for me!  I thought about giving it away instead of fixing it, but I spent a LOT of time on it.  And I wouldn't want anyone else to see the ends I wove "in" (ha) under the arms when it was two hours past my bedtime. 

There were many stops and starts.  Shall we review:

~I had problems getting the yarn-overs over the joints on my circular needles, so I finally decided to skip the lace portion and just knit stockinette instead.  (My Addis are so worth the money.  I will never buy cheap circulars again.) 

~I knitted the whole thing only to see it was entirely humongous on me.

~I ripped all the way back into the garter stitch portion.  Besides being all-around too big, I really wanted the transition to be at or above my bust line and it was an inch or two below. 

~I knit it back down to about hip length.

~Once I got all that done, I washed and blocked it....  Thanks to the weight of the bamboo, the sweater grew four inches!!  Easily four inches, maybe even more. 

~I had to (gulp) cut my knitting.  Okay, I didn't have to cut it but I knew it would be the fastest way to the end result.  Plus, I had to show this sweater who is boss. 

snip snip snip

Here's the first version (left), too big around.  The second time I ended at about the same place, right at my hip.  Then I blocked it (right).  I knew the bamboo was likely to grow but I never imagined it would grow so much!  . 

Finally this morning, I cut off the bottom several inches, picked up stitches and bound off.  I didn't want to redo the garter edge on the bottom so I tried this new bind-off I found last night in Toe Up!  It's called the yarn over bind off.  It worked pretty well. 

Note to self: next time, wash the swatch.  There's a great article I just saw on gauge swatching,  how and why, and about the importance of "dressing" your swatch.  I believe that was in Knit Simple?  (Don't quote me on that but I was just flipping through the newsstand knitting magazines so I know it's out there somewhere.)  Oh if only I had read that four months ago.  But I might as well learn it the hard way so I won't forget!