Finishing up

Well, what more can I say? Day 19, and ... It's finished.

I have yet to block it; I admit that I'm kinda putting that off because it takes so long to dry. (Especially since the air around here has been really damp lately.) And I think I may need to pin the ribbed edges, which means I have to find pins.

My goal is to be completely finished in 3 weeks (21 days of actually working on it). I think that should be pretty easy. 1 day to block, drying time doesn't count because I won't be actively doing anything to it, and then 1 day for crocheting along the edges (if necessary) once it's dry.

But aside from that ... voila!




If you look closely at the picture of the back, you can kinda tell where I had to be creative to get the eyelets threaded correctly, right in the center. It wasn't a mistake, exactly; I did the math and couldn't get things to work out how I wanted, so I opted for the least annoying solution. There's actually an extra eyelet there in the center, and the i-cord is just threaded through the stitches on either side of it. I guess it would've looked better to leave that eyelet out entirely, but it would've made it more difficult to find the right stitch and I didn't think of the obvious solution (a stitch marker) at the time. It doesn't look bad, anyway. I doubt anybody'll notice if I don't point it out to them.

I'm so pleased with this sweater. The ribbed bind-off edges (on the buttonbands and the neckline) are still flaring quite a bit, and I'm thinking that if blocking doesn't do the trick, I'll crochet a tight border on to pull it in and keep things in check. I don't know yet though. I'm really not terribly fond of the neckline ribbing anyway, so I may just cut it off and replace it with a crochet border. That would be narrower and I think it would look better. But we'll see.

Overall, I'd call it a successful project. Now I just have to work up the motivation for the final blocking so I can wear it.

For reference purposes ... another link to the pattern so you can compare mine to the original. Yes I used the entire outfit for inspiration. (I just didn't feel like changing into khakis for webcam pictures.)

It tooks cute over other shirts too, but I really love it over that white button-up. I had to tuck the white shirt's sleeves up about a half inch, since they're slightly longer than the Hey, Teach sleeves, but I think I'll end up hemming them anyway.

And I still have to take better pictures, with a real camera, once the final blocking is complete. In the meantime, you'll just have to deal with these, though. It was late last night when I finished it and Luke and I both worked today.

Oh, and you can blame Luke for the suckiness of these pictures. He was the one pushing the button, since I had to stand too far away to get the whole sweater in the shot.

-Amie