finishing notes

Okay, I washed and blocked. It was surprisingly hard to get the shoulder seams and the bottom edges both lined up as the garter stitch really ‘pulls up’ the fronts.
The shoulders: Any future knitters - unless you have football player shoulders, knit at least one size smaller than your bust measurement! The shoulders are ‘sloppy’ and the sleeves are long and therefore heavy. I tried on as I went and thought it was fine but once the sleeves were in they pull the shoulders down. The only way I found to mitigate this problem is to pin it up high, as you can see in the second picture, when I pin it lower it’s fine at first but then the shoulders start to slide down.
The sleeves: As written (and shown) the sleeves are very long and the cuffs cover your wrists and the upper parts of your hands. As noted above, these super long sleeves are heavy. In the end I don’t mind (though I can’t wash dishes while wearing it) but, unless you have monkey arms like mine, start the decreases much sooner.
The shaping: Wow am I glad that I saw how loose the fit was in the beginning and did some serious shaping. If you don’t want a ‘relaxed-fit’ (i.e. potato sack) again, I would think about some serious negative ease (but that could make the hip measurement too snug) or adding in your own waist shaping and trying it on as you go.

Feb. 23, 2015
In love with this yarn and desperately in need of another cardigan…I’ve decided to start in hopes that I’ll finish before next winter!

17/04/2015 - made it to the armpits! put markers at center of ‘sideseams’ in case I want to add waist shaping later.

30/07/2015 - Okay, I got about 4” past the armpit and 6 increases into the front band shaping and saw clearly that it was going to be way too big…patience is a virtue. Ripped back 2” and started in with waist shaping at the sides and two “darts” in the back with decreases on only the center-back facing sides of the markers. So far so good, it is looking much better! Will continue decreases (6 st total) until length from underarm = 7” then knit for another 1” or so before doing hip increases.