Claude FO

Nothing like the designer saying they can't wait to see the FO to get your ass in gear with the finishing!

Please excuse the crapness of this photo, the buttons really aren't that wonky, the light here is terrible and my DH is of the 'point and shoot' school of photography rather than being any help at all, if you think that this photo is bad you should have seen the ones he took of the back of the sweater...

Anywho:



There she is. This was a really fast knit, it was just the finishing that seemed to take me an age as I'm not the biggest fan of seaming. I love the details on this sweater and that's what makes it such a nice garment, the cuffs on the sleeves, the cables, the moss stitch collar etc, all these things add so much to the finished item but don't make the actual *making* of it difficult.

Strangely the only way I could get the collar to look ok when I was sewing it was to slip stitch it from the outside which I've never done before, normally the inside works just fine and worked fine for the button bands. I had issues with the buttonholes as well, I just could not get them to work for me, but I will point out that I was far too lazy to come downstairs and read the buttonhole tutorial that Anna posted so it's my own fault! I did a hybrid sort of buttonhole that has worked fine and I like the look of but for a while there we were heading for snaps!

I must say as well that I'm not happy with this yarn, I think that it is going to pill big time and it's the standard lightweight acrylic which means that it doesn't give the sweater the 'swing' that I think it should have and would have were it made with heavier fibre. I had intended to use the rest of this yarn I have (I bought it for the Ribby Cardi but lost the pattern when our laptop died) for a vest but I don't think I will now, I don't want to invest the time in a garment that won't last too long.

I have nothing but praise for Anna's pattern though, it was everything you wish a pattern would be but are let down almost every time. I never once said 'huh?' and had to re-read to figure out what the hell was going on, she even writes the directions for both sides of the front rather than the horrific 'reverse shaping' that we end up with all the time which was wonderful. The design features kept the knitting interesting which is how it should be, the pattern itself shouldn't be the challenge! The pattern can be found via Anna's blog here and is very reasonably priced at only £3!

That's it from me today as I'm feeling rather pissed off. MIL normally comes over on a Tuesday to see Little One, but when there is football on (as there is today) Little One goes over to her house with his Dad and I get time to myself. We'd assumed that Little One would go today and we'd forgo the visit tomorrow so I had a lovely afternoon all planned out sewing and knitting when MIL rings yesterday to say that she will come tomorrow 'as normal' so not to send him over today.... So, not only do I loose my nice afternoon alone but I also loose most of my sewing time tomorrow with her being here... Don't get me wrong, I like the woman a lot, she's a great person and Little One adores her, but I hate people making decisions like that about my time, especially when time totally alone (and time when a child is napping doesn't count as they could wake up any moment, nap times are borrowed time in my opinion) so I've been very grumpy all day. Add to that the fact that DH said he'd go down the allotment with me this morning and then changed his mind and I'm not a cheery bunny.... Sigh.