a new yellow sweater

I started this sweater in early March. It took a couple tries to get the right gauge (number of stitches per inch), but eventually I got going. It actually knit up pretty quickly ... until the end. I had enough yarn to finish everything BUT the button bands. After using over 1,000 yards of yarn, I was about 20 yards short. So, I had to order one more skein of yarn, which comes in 220-yard hanks, and hope to high heaven the colors matched (yarn is dyed in lots, and even though you might get the same "color" of yarn, if you get different lots the colors can vary).

My new yarn arrived last week, and seemed pretty close in color. On Saturday I finished up the button bands ... only THEN to realize my colors weren't exactly the same. Oh well, its just going to have to do. And once there are buttons on there and you're looking at the whole sweater, I'm probably the only one who will notice (well, and now all of you because you've read this post .... ). At any rate, except for the buttons, my sweater is finished! And what I love the most is that it fits! All that checking of gauge and starting over a couple times was worth it. (Its such a bummer to get to the end of a 6-week labor-intensive project only to find you've made a size too big or too small ... which I've done.) Here are the picts! (I'll probably post one more after I get the buttons sewn on, but I was just so excited about how it turned out, I couldn't wait until then to show it off.)

This is the cable detail on the back, and was the most labor intensive, and fun, part of the sweater.

Here it is after I wet it down to block it (you can see the slightly different color of yellow in the button bands)

And here it is on me! (Please ignore the bad hair.)

And the back.

Now the only problem is that its 100% wool and long-sleeved ... so it'll probably be a few months before its really wearable. But I'm excited for it anyway!