7Nov10: Stitching up the button band worked wonders. I’m so pleased with the fit! I have about a quarter of the 5th ball left, maybe.

I used a 2” wide polyester strap material from the trim section of the fabric store as an insert to stiffen up the collar (see stock photo). If you do this, I recommend stitching the ends of the insert into the knitting, as it can shift with movement. You want the corners to be nice and stiff.

Also, for the folded hems and collar, I strongly suggest you decrease 10% of the stitches on the wrong side so that they don’t flare out. I always make sure to have one even row flanking each side of the turning row, before changing the stitch number.

I didn’t change the stitch count for the ribbing on the sleeves as in the pattern, but I did use smaller needles as suggested.

3Nov10: Great mod: I slipped a wide seatbelt-like material from the fabric store through the collar to make it stand up.

I’m reaching the end of this… and have discovered that it is way more fitted than it should be. And yes, my gauge seems to have moved to 19.5 inches. ‘Moved’ should not be taken to seriously, as my gauge swatches are notoriously skimpy on the row count.

So. The buttons close, but there is a nice big (pulled) oval between each one. I’m going to just sew the whole thing shut: thus it will morph into a not-so-cardigan cardigan. Anyway, this sweater would never look right open, so no big loss.

7Sept10: Mouline (yarn store in Montreal) has a great sale on Lustra right now. Since I had some in my stash, I decided to knit with it to see whether I like it!

IntSweMoDo2010 #7