Well I did indeed get lost in this sweater … I put it aside for the bulk of the summer, but the cooler weather has returned and I think I found my knitting mojo again. The pattern is very well written and that made it so much easier to return to, after having left it hybernating for so many months.

I wanted to take part in the SkeinQueen Austin Hoodie KAL, but I didn’t quite have enough of the light teal yarn to make a whole sweater in my size. For some reason, I had also bought one hank of the darker shade in the same yarn… “Could I make a two toned Austin Hoodie??” I wondered. And I decided to go for it, and I’m quite happy with the results. My inexperience in joining the shoulders to the body is more obvious because of the two colours. But that’s okay, I love my hoodie all the same.

My two tone method: I used a strand of each colour for the textured section. I kept the light colour as the band colour going up the hood. To do this, at the beginning of the darker ribbed area, i had to attach yarn to the other end, so while knitting the hood I had three areas where yarn was working, the first five stitches (the band) in the light colour, the body of the hood in the darker shade, and then a second strand of the light teal for the last five stitches.

The buttons: When finished, I really longed for something to close it up over my chest. I decided to add buttons (every 20 rows). Unfortunately, as the buttons were an afterthought, after the sweater was complete, they are not executed perfectly. But I’m still very happy with the sweater, and I’ll wear it much more now that I do have those buttons there.

If I had to do it allover again:

1. I would incorporate proper, intentioned button holes from the beginnnig.
2. I would slow down around the shoulders and really get that right. That was the most difficult part for me, the joining of the shoulders.
3. The rolled bottom hem is my only qualm with the pattern as written… I would try to modify that.

12/20/2019: frogged it as I don’t wear it (too big now) and I wanted the yarn.