The 16-day Sweater

My most recent FO defies all logic. Logically, I shouldn't be knitting a sweater when it's 90 degrees outside. Logically, when I'm effectually a single parent because the Mister is traveling for work, I should have less time to myself and therefore less knitting time. Logically, a sweater should take me at least a month to make.

Like I said, this defies all logic, but here it is:

Pattern: Betty Blue by Triona Murphy (test knit), 34" bust size
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers (100% Peruvian highland wool) in color 9452, ~3.75 skeins, and Cascade 220 Wool in color 9465, ~0.13 skeins
Needles: US 5, 6, and 7 (3.75, 4.0, and 4.5 mm) 32" Addi Turbo circs
Started/Completed: June 6/June 21
Mods: added an inch in length to the sleeves and went up a needle size for the colorwork section on the body (I tend to knit very tight when I'm doing stranded work)

This was a really fun knit that went surprisingly quickly. Even given that it's worked in the round and is mostly stockinette, I'm still a bit shocked at how fast it went considering that my crafting time has been fairly curtailed of late.

Because this was a test knit, I really did not make any major modifications to the pattern. I figured that adding some additional length to the sleeves was acceptable, and the designer had okayed my use of a larger needle for the colorwork band on the body. She noted that she hadn't included this needle change in the pattern because she was counting on the colorwork band adding additional shaping under the bust; as you can see, though, it doesn't quite hit that area for me!

I'm pretty happy with the fit of this. I knit the size that gives me about two inches of negative ease, as recommended in the pattern, and I'm fine with that everywhere but in the belly, where I'm still carrying a bit of postpregnancy pooch. I guess this is good motivation to work on toning that area up! The sleeves are surprisingly comfy; I've realized that while I like negative ease in the body of a sweater, that sometimes translates to sleeves that are uncomfortably snug. These are snug at the wrists, where you'd expect them to be snug because of the ribbing and colorwork, but are well proportioned everywhere else.

The pattern is well written, and the sweater is obviously really cute (and fast to knit -- have I mentioned that?), so keep an eye out for it on Ravelry!