Sweater Heaven

It is indeed done.  Pleased cannot begin to describe it. 

There is part of me that is a farm girl, who did not grow up to be a lady who likes plain simple unfussy things, whose idea of things is that it has to be useful and that useful is true beauty and a beauty unto itself.   There is part of me that adores the most feminine of laces, the ruffles, the bows, the satin, the velvet, the Edwardian perfection and folds of delicate handkerchiefs of lawn fabric so thin as to be made of air.  This sweater is everything of both sides of me. 

The lace is just right for this very substantial yarn, though it is a good thing that I did not do the garter stitch from the pattern.  That would have been too much texture and would have made it bulky and heavy.  It isn't light and airy though.  It is substantial.  It is warm.  It is not boring and that is exactly what my wardrobe needed right now.  It is also perfect for displaying my highly valued turtlenecks.

I did add a few more rows to the bottom, to give that edge a bit more weight.  I had to do it in a band of colour though.  There wasn't enough of the darkest blue to do three rows of garter, let alone the three ridges I wanted.

I didn't obsess over buttons too much.  I knew it had to be something from the box and I knew it was going to be something different and a bit more showy than I would normally use.  What I found in the box, is as perfect as if I had planned it.

The size that fit best through my buttonholes was fairly large, but that suits the scale of everything else.  If you look carefully at the buttons, you will notice that though they are the same pattern, they are slightly different colours.  I had three decorated with white, three with a coffee colour, and two of the middle tone of this same button and I had five button holes to fill.  It only seemed right to do a gradient for the buttons.  I wouldn't have ever thought of that had I not had a stash of a billion buttons and yet, I love the quirkiness of it.  It very much is part of my sweater love.

It hasn't made it to final blocking yet, but that is only because I am wearing it right now. I wore it most of the day yesterday too.  Blocking can wait.  I am in new sweater heaven.