Better than Good

There's such a great sense of satisfaction when you make something and it turns out just as you wanted it to.

On Saturday, after a marathon sleeve-knitting session, I finally finished my sweater. (I say "finally," but it really didn't take me that long -- less than three weeks, actually.) I threw it in the bathtub on Sunday morning and promptly forgot about it until Sunday night, when I finally got it out and laid it out to dry. This morning, it was dry and I was able to try it on -- and it's perfect!

This turned out exactly as I wanted -- fitted in the body, but not so fitted that it's uncomfortable or tight; cozy around the neck; and flowy enough that I feel like I can wrap myself up in it. I'm particularly proud of the technique I used to get the pleats to fold nicely as they do.

All in all, this was a fun knit. I really enjoyed working with the yarn, though if I can make one complaint, it's that the skeins are a little too short on yardage for my taste (I'd much prefer a 100 g skein so I don't have to join as often). The yarn felts really nicely and easily, though, so it was relatively easy to join in a new skein. I used at least parts of 10 skeins (I still have to weigh my leftovers to see if I really needed to break into the 10th one), and in only one skein did I encounter any knots. Those knots were a bummer, but, again, because of the ease of felting, they ended up being only a minor inconvenience.

Now that the sample is done, it's time to get down to business and write out the pattern (and crunch a few more numbers). I have my tech editor lined up, and I'm hoping to do a proper photo shoot this weekend, so the pattern should be ready to go and be test knit by later this month, if all goes according to plan. I might even knit up another one with my test knitters -- there's a sweater's worth of pink Cascade 220 in my stash that would look great on my mother!