Success from Failure (1)

 So yesterday being a very horrible day weather wise I sat down with a poster book on Audible, access to The West Wing which I have never previously watched ( I know, there's late to the party, and then there's just ridiculous) and I had a good go at the jumper. Et voila

It is done. I'm quite pleased with it on various fronts. a) it's finished, b) it fits c) I fiddled the neckband and although it took me three goes I'm really happy with how it turned out d) it was really cheap because it's a discontinued Rowan yarn which is basically half wool and half silk and I bought 12 skeins of it from a local designer when Rowan discontinued it,  at £1.00 a skein.  I used nine for the jumper so it cost me £9.00. Also a lot of frustration and heartache, but learning takes effort, yeah?

If I were to do it again, I wouldn't bother with the short row shaping on the back because it made hardly any difference to the height of the back in return for a lot of effort, I would make the sleeves slightly longer and the body even shorter, and I would use a toning sturdier yarn for the rib because this yarn is very soft. That said I won't be doing it again because it was an absolute pain to knit, I got really bored with it several times over and I have come to the conclusion that,I prefer to knit jumpers bottom up rather than top down. In view of the fact that many of the jumpers I swoon over on Ravelry are knitted top down that's a shame. Maybe I just need more practice. 

Although I didn't get it finished to my self imposed deadline of 30th April I didn't do too badly by finishing it on 4th May. The next one on my list is part done, and has been for several years,  so I'm hopeful I'll get that finished by my goal date of 30th June. Time will tell.