Starsky Cardigan

Since I was a good girl and finished my Christmas projects early, I decided to whip up a comfy Christmas sweater for myself.  The pattern I used was Starsky by Jordana Paige, which is available through Knitty. This one's been in my queue for a long time and I bought the yarn for my birthday.  And now that I've got my stash down to about 2.5 miles (it was nearly 3 times that this time last year!!), I've been able to get to projects that were a lower priority in my list.   So here it is in all its glory, Starsky:

I had to put it on hold to finish Walker's socks in a timely fashion, but actual knitting time for this beauty was only about 2 weeks.  I do love bulky yarn and its instant gratification.  I used Knit Picks Swish Bulky Bare, which gets an A+ from me.  Soft, comfortable, easy to work with, and should I accidentally spill something on it at Christmas, I can just throw it in the wash without a care. 

So although the stitch pattern was fairly complicated:

It was only twisted stitches the whole time and I didn't have to touch a cable needle.  So long as you're comfortable with reading your knitting, you have nothing to fear in this pattern.  Beware, though, that it has a lot of finishing.  It's knit flat (lots of seams), has a huge collar, and the belt/loops are kinda long and tedious.  My next sweater project is definitely going to be in the round and seamless!  So it's definitely a pattern for the experienced and/or ambitious, but the results are beautiful!

I did make one big mistake, though.

I've been noticing recently that sleeves in my size are a little too small to accomodate my "guns," as it were, so I overcompensated by knitting these sleeves in the next size up.  Unfortunately I forgot that the whole sweater calls for 6-8 inches of positive ease, so now I have huge rather poofy sleeves. 

Oops. 

I can't decide if I want to take the sleeves off and reknit them or if I just want to go with the "extra-comfy" aspect of huge sleeves and call it a design feature.  That may be something to reconsider later, when/if I use the remainder of my stash. For now, I am very pleased with the outcome and have yet another reason why I can't wait for Christmas!

For next time, I've got a gorgeous lacy thing to block out.  Another pretty little selfish project for me!  Of course, if it doesn't take to blocking very well, I'll have some Christmas projects to finally show you!

Merry Christmas!

-Allie