Oh Happy Day! It's a Great Sweater!

I started this sweater on January 19 and finished it yesterday.  Two weeks for a sweater.  Not a personal best time, but decent.  Funnny how that happens when you stay relatively monogamous.

I took some better shots of it this morning and I have to say, I am pretty pleased.  

It has a rather collegial look to it and a much more traditonal fit than the sweater I finished just before Christmas.  That one was meant to be a tunic and this is just a sweater, a nice warm sweater. It hits several firsts.  It is the first raglan sleeved garment I have knit in years and the very first wool sweater with raglan sleeves.  It is the first sweater I made with a bit of a hand pocket on the front, the first bunnyhug if you will (my roots are showing).

 

I has several utterly perfect things about it.  I got the sleeve length totally right - notes have been taken and saved.  V neck, which I spoke about before is completely right.  I am so glad that I had avdventures and imperfections to teach myself something new.  And to top it all off, for a never try it on till it was done sweater, it fits!

That doesn't mean it is perfect. 

 The next raglan will have some sleeve mods to square off the shoulder, if you will.  The slope of the shoulder here could look just fine if I add a wee bit of a something to accomplish that.  A short row or two on the topside of the shoulder?  Increase stitches?  Not sure quite what to try yet but there is lots of time to play.

 

I will add the four more stitches I need at the underarm.  Those stitches would have made the sleeves perfect, and wouldn't have interferred with the body at all.  It is okay but it can always be better.

I would make the hand pouch wider by an inch, at least, on either side.  It is a wee bit narrow but will be okay.  I added a ribbing at the pocket edge and that will work for this sweater.  I would absolutely need the extra width if I was planning to use it as a pocket.  If I was using it as a pocket, I would also start the pocket higher up on the sweater so I could knit a more pockety bit nearer the hem.  It is placed fine for this sweaters hand pouch goal but the bottom is at the same place as the pouch edge.  If I wanted a pocket, I would like the bottom of it to be an icnch or two lower than the pocket opening. 

When all is said and done, I am just going to put it on today and wear it happily.  It is such a grand thing to be able to do.  To be able to take some string and manipulate it and turn it into something to keep warm me on a chilly winter day is the most satisfying thing in my life.  

The other grand thing?  It is not hard.  It is not difficult and everyone of you could be doing this for yourselves.