putting all the pieces together

Yesterday I sewed together all five pieces of my sweater! Boy, sewing knits are tough, but getting this close to completion feels good.


I have already begun knitting a ribbed trim to go up the front of the cardigan, to keep the opening from rolling in the way the stockingette likes to. I put button holes on one side of the trim and will obviously sew buttons on the other. Then I just have to add some sort of collar. I don't know yet what that should look like...


I began this sweater sooo long ago - in the summer of 2006 - and its first incarnation was to be a knit camisole with little i-cord straps. very simple. Somehow I decided that I wanted to knit a cardigan and this (with the back halfway through with completion) became it. Looking at this sweater as it literally comes together, I have to say that I doubt this is something I will be wearing. Several things I learned from making my first sweater:

1) choose a yarn + color that will make a nice sweater, not something that looks pretty in the craft store when it's wrapped up in a ball. The colors I tend to wear and like are not green and pink with gold sparkles, but grey, taupe, brown and BLACK! If this were a black sweater it would not have taken me a year and a half to make. I would have been racing to complete it so I could pair it with every single item in my closet!

2) don't alter the pattern unless neccessary. I don't know why I decided to alter this pattern in so many places. The finished sweater is nothing like the one that Lion Brand originally directed me to make. And now, looking at the instruction sheet, I realize that I like the one in the photo a lot better. It's a lot more like a swing coat and calls for a single button at the neck. cute!! Why didn't I just make that sweater as directed? Also, the sleeves would be real sleeves rather than 3/4 sleeves had I used the correct gauge. (let's pretend that was intentional!) I guess now that I know how it's done, I can knit the real sweater next.