Pattern: Romane and Roman by Aurelie Colas
Yarn: Cascade 220 (100% Peruvian highland wool) in color 8892/Azure, less than three skeins
Needles: US 6 (4.0 mm) Addi Rockets
Started/Completed: December 18/December 22
Mods: minor adjustments (see below)
While these aren't final final pictures -- the sweater is clearly in need of a good blocking, which may not happen until we're home because there aren't really any old towels or blocking spaces available here, not to mention that there are still buttons needed -- you can see that the fit is good and there's plenty of room for Rainbow to grow. And as this sweater will always be hand washed, there's no risk of it shrinking.
I made a few minor modifications to the pattern, namely changing the number of stitches I picked up on either side of the cabled band. For the neck band, this was no big deal, but because I picked up more stitches than called for on the bottom of the band for the rest of the yoke, I had to modify the first increase round. (Incidentally, if you're looking for a good online calculator to help you increase a certain number of stitches evenly across a row, I found the one here to be very helpful.) I also worked the body to be somewhere between straight and A line; I worked one additional set of increases beyond those indicated for the straight fit. Finally, I changed the direction of some of the decreases on the sleeves (I just prefer decreases that lean toward the beginning of the round when it falls on the underside of the sleeve).
I finished just before my bedtime last night, long after Rainbow had gone to bed, so I left it hanging in her room so she would see it when she woke up. I happened to wake up a little before she did, so I got to watch her reaction when she saw it, and it pleased me to no end that she was very excited to have a new sweater! It was certainly a fun knit for me, even if it did give me Smurf hands for a few days.
Now that the sweater is off the needles, I've turned my attention back to my latest design sample, which I'd started before we left. I was worried it would take me a while, but now that I've had it out for a day, I can see that it will move right along as long as I can give it some decent attention.
This is what it looked like a little earlier this afternoon. The untouched balls of yarn show the order of the colors to come; I'll end with the dark brownish gray at the bottom (you can see that I used it for the provisional cast on at the bottom of the tube). All told, there will be 10 blocks of color, and I should have four done by the end of the day. It's a fun knit and it's nice to alternate the colorwork sections with the plain stockinette.
P.S. I'm hoping to post again on Friday, but just in case I don't (and in case you readers are not online, for very good reasons), I wanted to mention that in celebration of the big year it's been for me design-wise, I'm having a sale for the last week of the year. From December 25 through 31, all my self-published patterns and e-books will be 25% off with the coupon code goodbye2015. You can use the code as many times as you like, too!
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