I Finished Something!

Olivia's Neckdown Bolero (Rav link) is finally finished! Although I've stashed a bunch of it, this was my first time actually knitting with Dream in Color (this is Classy in Pansy Golightly) and I really enjoyed it. I'm always drawn to interesting color combos even when I don't like them knit up, but these are pretty yet subtle enough that I don't feel like the project screams home made (unlike Olivia's last purple sweater - ugh). Now to see how it wears.

I really did enjoy this project, even though I didn't work on it very steadily. There are a lot of stitches to pick up (the collar, the ribbing on the bottom edge, and then a little under each sleeve) and picking up stitches could be my favorite part of knitting right after casting on. And get this: the bottom edge requires picking up way more stitches than there is room for them, meaning that sometimes I picked up in both the whole stitch and then just half of the same stitch. That was new to me but seems a handy trick; it gives a lovely curve to the front edge. I know it looks wonky in the top picture - the wiggle worm was out in full force this morning - but isn't really.

The other tricky part of this sweater was button placement, since there's no obvious place to put them and the instructions just say to sew them on. The spot that looked best when the sweater was lying still pulled a lot when on. It took a few tries and probably could have done with a few more but Olivia decided she was done participating. This would be a tough sweater to make as a gift for that reason (and accounts for the vastly differing fits on Ravelry). So I'm still not sure about placement but I'm in complete love with the actual buttons:

They're pewter and have snowflakes on them. My mother-in-law gave them to me a few years ago and they've been waiting for the perfect project ever since (and I still have five left - yay). I was thinking of maybe a wooden button for this sweater, but Olivia saw me testing the snowflakes and the decision was made for me.

Okay, so now we just need some sweater weather. It was in the seventies again today. How strange to be crunching our way through the fall leaves in shorts.

Comments

[Stacey]

Do you really like picking up stitches? Ugh. That's right up there with seaming for me.

Actually, I might like seaming more.

Good job though! I like that picture from the back for some reason.

[sue]

I love the color of that cute bolero. How sweet and the button looks perfect where it is.

[Holly Jo]

The color is superb. Nice to know about the Classy though - I hear people talk about it, but never really about how it is to knit with.

Don't you wish you could wear cute sweaters like that and not wonder if you are trying to be too young?

[Nadine]

It IS so weird to be seeing shorts being worned. I'm freezing in my office right now. I could use the bolero to warm an arm or my cheeks.

[Terrie]

Olivia's bolero looks great! I can't believe how warm it's been lately. Get ready for it to get colder tomorrow...at least for a little bit :)

[Jody]

Sooo cute! I hope Allie's turns out as good as Olivia's. I'm still plugging away at it.

Now I'm off to buy some DiC Classy ...