I can’t believe it’s done. It felt like I was knitting it forever. Like an ocean of stockinette and sleeves were all that I did for a very long time. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and now I know that it wasn’t quite so dire as all that.

From swatching to wearing was exactly six weeks. Not terrible. But I remind myself that it was not all I did. In that six week span, I completed eight other projects. Kind of crazy to think that I worked on that many other things while I had the sweater on the needles. I also continued to feed the kids and keep up my responsibilities during this time, which strikes me as an accomplishment itself. As my dad always said, “think about what you’d accomplish if you really buckled down.”

I’ve talked about the sweater a fair bit over the last few weeks, it’s been kind of a constant hum on the blog:

 

And then, magically, last weekend, I finished it. I wove in the ends and tried it on before throwing it in a nice, sudsy bath and laying it out on the blocking mats.

I’ve been a bit worried as it was drying that it was blocking out a bit too oversized. It’s superwash, so I could throw it in the washer but once I put it on I fell in love.

I was so excited to put it on this morning and wear it. Today I wore a sweater that I made! I roped my sweet friend, Holly, into taking a few pictures of me in it. By the way, she took these pictures with her phone and in about 3 seconds and they came out so cute! I definitely want to hire her for real pictures. She’s an incredibly talented photographer — check her out at hollycroftphotography.com

 

Overall, I’m in love with this sweater. It’s the perfect relaxed, snuggly, rainy day sweater. For the details, this is Puntilla by Joji Locatelli. It’s a great first sweater–this is my first–her instructions are very clear and easy to follow. The yarn is O-Wool O-Wash Fingering in the Watermill colorway. I purchased it at Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival last year. I used almost 3 skeins in the sweater, a bit more than that if you include swatching. This yarn is a dream, I highly recommend it.

I knit the sweater on 3.5mm/US 4 needles. When I swatched with those I got

• Before blocking – row gauge: 30 st = 3 7/8” – stitch gauge: 24 st = 4”
• After blocking – row gauge: 30 st = 3 1/2” stitch gauge: 22 1/4 st = 4″

My gauge was a bit off what was called for, so I calculated that knitting a medium would give me a body circumference of 45″. Measuring the sweater today, it’s exactly 45″. Crazy. I’ve got a bit more about my swatching, my measurements, and determining size on my project page. On another note, this the first in my list of challenges for 2018 to get crossed off — a garment!

The moral of the story is that I love my first sweater. I can’t wait to knit more, but this one is definitely keeping me warm in the mean time.

Happy {sweater} making!