Yarn purchased at LA Vogue Live 2011 for $20 for 10 balls. Definitely do the whole height of the gauge swatch before measuring!My gauge swatch looked way off when I only had knitted up to row 18. Was pretty close once I had finished it. The top of the triangle really nips in the middle. I was trying to figure out how my swatch could be 4 inches wide instead of 3 when I was using fingering weight yarn and smaller than recommended needles.

6/29: Finished up the back yesterday and started on right front. I am doing the tulip buttonhole as described by TECHknitter, but my first two don’t look the same. The pattern gets easy after a while. I’ve still had to go back a few times though because I’ve forgotten some 5-out-of-1 stitches. Used a little more than two balls on the back.

7/21: All blocked and I’m assembling it now. I am actually worried that it’s too big now. I was maybe hoping for negative ease, and it’s got some positive ease. I’ll have to see how it turns out when I get the second sleeve and collar sewn on. Hopefully that pulls it in a smidge. Now it looks like an actual ’40s sweater, when I still wanted a modern silhouette. I may try to reblock it a bit smaller. Does that actually work?

7/27: Many additional steps to make this work. Yes, I reblocked it. It did seem smaller when I was done, but it may have stretched back out since then. The sweater is close to zero ease, but doesn’t look it. I added elastic thread to the waistband. This way, it pulls in so the top blouses out over it, instead of just looking frumpy and loose. I wasn’t going to make the sleeve pads called for in the pattern, but decided they made the sweater look more dramatic. Without them, it kind of makes my shoulders slope down. Like the shoulder doesn’t fit exactly where it should. A slimmer silhouette on the sleeves would help this look more polished. I am not sure how to do that in the pattern. Removing a full repeat might be too much.

I sewed snaps on to the shoulder pads. This way I have options. I used the half-moon sleeve pad, but maybe would go for the triangle pad if I did it again.

The bottom two pictures are without the pads in.