...A Woolly jumper!

OK, bit of a gap between posts, but it took longer to finish the jumper than expected and then it's all been a bit busy. But it is finally done!

Not your run of the mill jumper.

In my last post I mentioned that I needed to check the sizing because I might not have made the right one, well, turns out I was making a size too small. First lesson kids: always measure yourself before picking a size to make. Real rookie mistake. But how to fix this? My idea was just to make two panels and sew them in under the arms, but after talking to someone at work, they suggested picking the stitches up one edge then working the same number of rows as stitches I was missing. This then meant I only had to sew one seam per side rather than two. And it worked. Really well in fact. The change in stitch direction also makes it look deliberate rather then just trying to cover up the mistake.

It was meant to look like this...honest.

Rookie mistake number two was not double checking which sides I was sewing when putting it together so I managed to sew one side up with the right side of one piece and wrong side of the other both on the same side *slaps forehead* Putting the arms in was really simple too, just a case of picking up stitches, the correct number for the size I should have been making with the added panel I put in, and knitting. I was worried when I was doing it the sleeves may have been a bit long (being short sleeves sometimes are a bit long), but they've come out as great little cap sleeves, more or less.

Teeny-tiny sleeves.

Once the two front pieces and back were attached, and arms put in, I could work on the hood. Really straightforward, just knitting straight rows to make what seems like a massive 80s collar before it's seamed across the top. When I reached the point that the pattern said to seam it just didn't seem big enough... so I did a few more rows. I now have a giant hood. It definitely covers my head, which I think is the basic purpose of a hood, even if it does restrict my vision a bit.

Last step was just the ribbed button band that runs all the way from the bottom of one side, around the hood and down the otherside. Took a bit of fiddling about, I didn't want to buy a massive cable I wasn't likely to use again, and although Knit Pro (the make of needles I use) make a small part to connect two shorter cables, neither of my local yarn shops stock it. So it was a case of knitting along one then unscrewing the needles, putting ends on, attaching the needles to another wire and then starting along that cable. I had a bit of trouble picking up the 150-odd stitches I had to in order to do this, I kept over and under picking, but a friend's mum told me when she has to pick up a lot of stitches, she divides it into manageable chunks and works out how many she needs in each block. Shame I'd already moved on when she told me about this.

It's macro time!

The button holes were simple bind-off/cast-on type, but I think I need to work on them, or pick a different cast-on because they're a little loose. The buttons were a bit of a find in the local everything shop, I wanted wooden ones, and these have purple that is a really good match for my wool.

Just so happy to have finished it.

And voila, one jumper. I've worn it a couple of times, its really handy to have in the car, if it looks a bit grey and miserable before work I can wear it in and it squishes small enough to get in my bag if the weather picks up.