Knitting size M at 3.5 st/in gauge gives me a 35” cardi, which is a better sze for me than the 40” that the pattern offers at the smallest size. Luckily, the row gauge is only slightly off, and I wanted it shorter anyway, so I didn’t have to make any modifications there. My sweater fits more like a regular cardi than a sweater coat.

For the raglan increases without a stitch in between them, I prefer to do a KLL and KRL, rather than doing 2 consecutive m1’s.

I joined the body pieces first, instead of doing the sleeves first. It’s just easier for me to visualize how I want the sleeves to be if the body is already done and I can put it on. After the body was done the sleeves were knit in the round, picking up the necessary stitches from the body (this meant no seaming at the armpit later). The sleeves were knit straight, without any increases.

I did 3 sets of decreases for the waist (only on RS rows) and knit the ribbing section straight, without any shaping. I waited till row 56 to start the ribbing so that the buttonhole that is supposed to be made on row 62 (for size M) would be vertically centered in the ribbing section. I really liked that little tweak, but I think if you are actually knitting the pattern at row gauge, it may not work for you since the ribbing section may sit too low across your abdomen and not be flattering. After the ribbing section, I made 4 sets of increases for the waist so that the hips were a bit bigger than the chest.

I was initially tempted to leave off the pockets, but I’m so glad I made them. They are soooo cute! I did add an extra selvedge stitch on each side to make the seaming up a bit neater.

I’m very pleased with the results. This is the type of sweater that I can throw over just about anything, and I know I’ll grab for it often. The pattern was clear, but personally, I’m not a fan of how each row is spelled out for the first section of the pattern. At the least, it could have been simplified to say that all the WS rows were worked the same.