Sweater complete!

So, I finished my sweater... what? You didn't know I was knitting a sweater? It was kind of something that happened without my realization. I knit the entire body before finals week last semester, and it languished in my knitting basket until this semester's midterms. Because I was expressly avoiding what I was supposed to be doing (studying, writing papers, you know... the fun stuff), it was done in no time at all.

The yarn was originally purchased to make a different sweater (see this post), but I changed my mind and knit a different sweater from the pattern booklet.

Here it is laid out:

Front


Back


The color is all off in these pictures. They came out rather overexposed, and, in fixing that, it looks very purple. In reality, it's such a dark plum that it almost looks like a chocolate brown.

The stats:
Pattern: Adrienne Vittadini Deep Rib V Neck Pullover
Yarn: 11 balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool in Damson (024)
Needles: US 7 20" Denise Circulars
Size: Petite

I made a couple modifications when working the pattern. The most obvious was that I added waist shaping.



The sweater was originally shaped like a box, but I am not shaped like a box. I also worked most of the body in the round, splitting for the front and the back when I got to the neck shaping, which was about two inches below the arm shaping. I was going to work the sleeves in the round as well, but decided it was more important to work both sleeves at once, so they were knit flat. I changed the sleeve increases, as the pattern originally called for a series of increases right after the ribbing, which I felt contributed to the funny poof in the pattern picture. I omitted these and instead increased more frequently throughout the length of the sleeve to wind up with the same number of stitches at the end.

The collar is knit in once piece after everything else is seamed. Picking up those 184 stitches helped to vanquish my dislike of picking up stitches once and for all. It used to be my most dreaded knitting technique, but turns out I just needed practice. Making faux round swatches is my new nemesis.

Here's a picture of it on me:


And a close up of the V neck detail in the front:


Once again, it is very difficult to take modeled shots of oneself. I took about 30, running back and forth between propped up camera and frame, trying to get something decent, and these were just the best that came out. Normally, however, I'm not a fan of the headless look.

I am very happy with the yarn. Mission Falls 1824 Wool is very soft and a pleasure to work with. It's machine washable, which was an unintended bonus. The pattern called for a wool-silk blend, so using 100% wool has affected the drape, but I'm very pleased with the effect. The sweater has been blocked once, prior to seaming and picking up collar stitches, but it needs to be blocked once more as a whole.

It's a very comfortable sweater, but it sits farther out on my shoulders than I would have liked, even after adding an extra inch and a half of ribbing around the neckline. It's a bit big on me, bigger than the close-fitting sweater I originally envisioned. However, that is not the fault of the pattern or my knitting. I'm just smaller than I was when I started the sweater, which I knew, but decided to knit on when I picked it up again, as I was already knitting the smallest size. It's worth noting that being smaller than the smallest size in many patterns is kind of irritating. I know, I have little right to complain, but it means more math on my part. Not that I have a problem with math, either, but sometimes a girl just wants to knit! I think I need to eat more chocolate.

As for my next project-in-progress, it's another hat, but it's a little more interesting. Here's a preview of the swatch (the dreaded faux round swatch):