I started swatching for this months ago, but the cats got to my swatch and the mohair skein attached….and I was so discouraged by the broken and tangled mess that I had to put this project aside.

I also couldn’t untangle it near the cats!

On the ride up to the cottage, I untangled the mohair skein, and I finished the swatch. I am not perfectly on gauge, but I was close on the stitch count, a little low so that cemented I would go for the middle size (and end up a little larger). My row height is way off gauge, but I am not worried about that.

I cast on the sweater. The photos of it on the black car dashboard are much more azure than the yarn is in real life. The photo of it mostly finished is much more navy than the yarn is in real life.

The pattern calls for knitting a tube in the mohair, then knitting each side of the body flat, then binding off the shoulders and knitting in the round again, this time using the Venezia worsted.

Earlier this week, I tried on the sweater after I bound off the shoulders, and I was worried that the arms were going to be short (above the elbow, rather than the 3/4 sleeve in the pattern).

I just tried it on again now that I’m partway up the Venezia Worsted second tube, and the extra give in the neckline let the sleeves down and it will be just fine. Hooray!

2 Sept 2014
Cast off: Jeny’s surprisingly stretchy bind off.

3 Sept 2014
Sewing in ends now and will wash and block a little.

31 Dec 2014
Ugh. The blocking did not do it justice it is wide as two or three of me (and the neckline is below the bustline)!

1 Jan 2015 This great post from TECHknitter tells me what I should have done (pulled it long when blocking). Trying a second block.

3 January 2015 And hooray! Second block successful - sweater is now appropriately proportioned and I was able to wear it to a dinner party. Phew.

My one comment is that since the sweater is so subject to blocking, it might not be one that can be gifted to a non-knitter.