The Highlander

*please say with Scottish accent, it's more fun that way*

This is 18 ounces of glorious sweater.  By Anne, of course.  In  Briar Rose Fibers Glory Days, a gorgeous BFL DK weight yarn.  Speaking of, I have 14 ounces, approx 850 yards, leftover if anybody is interested in making the vest version of this sweater that would be perfect, I'm happy to sell my leftovers.

Buttons hand made by Joan Miller of ButtonBliss on Etsy.  These buttons are a bit darker than they look on the screen, they have lovely highlights of blue & purple and bring that out in the yarn, I think.  

Okay, I know, you want to know what it looks like on, right?

Some of these are a bit blurry, sorry about that, but DH was gone by the time I realized it and I don't want to wait to post.

The only changes I made to this pattern was to knit it a little longer in the sleeves and body to make up for my long waist, and I knit the collar about an inch shorter than it was written because my neck and wool are not fast friends.

I know they're dark and it's hard to see some of the details, but the yarn is dark and it's raining outside, I did the best I could to lighten them up without washing them out.

This is my first ever grown up sweater with pieced sleeves, so I spent some time last night on the web googling the best way to do all of that, and I think I did just fine.  (if I do say so myself)  I am, however, still highly suspicious of pieced sweaters b/c really - 4 hours of seaming AFTER the sweater is done???  That is WAY too much work before you know if it actually fits!!!!  

I think 'pleased with the outcome' would be an understatement.  This sweater took me 5 weeks, if I weren't test knitting it the knitting time would have been much longer, I really pushed through it.  And now I have a gorgeous, rich, incredibly warm sweater that I can't wear until October.  Sigh.  I am perhaps now I am the only person hoping for a day in the 40s in May.

A note on the complexity...the pattern itself isn't complex, but keeping track of the seed stitch pattern alternating with the stockinette squares really made this pattern something I couldn't knit & watch tv while doing.  Normally I go for patterns that are not this complicated, things I can knit a bunch of stockinette on and then just have some detail in it for interest.  

I am not saying that doing this test knit will change the things I knit completely, but it will make me take a second look at patterns I would have deemed 'too much trouble' before now.  Yeah, I had to concentrate, and yeah, it was hard work - but holy cow isn't it just GORGEOUS???????

Oh, and my favorite part by far?  The little cables along the edges and on the sides, it's these details that I love so much about Anne's patterns.  

Comments

[anne]

AWESOME!! thank you for the nice review of the pattern. i'll email when i get home today; for some reason i can't send email on the road!
thank you so much; it's beautiful!

[Jodi]

It turned out just beautifully, and it looks so cozy! Lots of nice details to the pattern.

While the seaming truly is a pain, I like how portable sweaters knit in pieces are.

[Andrea]

I love it, love it, love it! You should be so proud, this is a great sweater!!

[Maria]

Gorgeous! You did an amazing job!

[Erica]

That sweater looks great! It's a good color on you, and it fits perfectly! I agree about the "too complicated" thing...I like my sweaters to be mindless knits, but the complicated ones are definitely more fun to wear.

[chris from briar rose fibers]

wow!!! I am so impressed with your knitting skills and your speed!!! Fabulous job and it looks so good on you! yay!!!!

[Barbara-Kay]

You've done a wonderful job! Congrats on tackling the seaming...I knew you could do it.

I've become aware of the concept of ease: negative, no ease, and positive ease. I would like to know how the finished measurements of the sweater compare to your own measurements.
(You don't have to reveal actual numbers, just +/- 1", for instance.)

[Ronni]

That is beautiful! You did a wonderful job. I'm very much looking forward to this pattern coming out! Even more now.

[Heather]

Wow! Gorgeous sweater!!

And if these pics were taken of you after surgery you are looking really great!! The swelling is practically gone!

And really, the sweater is a work of art. I can barely finish a basic sweater, this one, my god woman! Its brilliant!!

xo

[Joan M]

Gorgeous! I feel so honored to have made the buttons. Its only May, maybe we'll still have a little cold snap and you can wear it.

[trek]

Must you tempt me so? ;o)

[Jocelyn]

Ooh! Ooh! It's gorgeous!! I love it. I know exactly what you mean about the piecing thing -- left on my own, I'll do one-piece sweaters as much as possible, although here I am knitting Ondule.

Also, btw, you are recovering beautifully (literally) from that surgery -- nary a bruise in sight!

[jennygirl]

this looks great on you! It did come out really nice, and I think these pics are mmore representative of the color than before.