February in November

Hello! Reporting in with a finished sweater!

The history of my February Lady:

I started in June, right after I saw the pattern via Ravelry and dug through my stash like a crazy woman to see what I could use. I had 10 balls of Debbie Bliss Merino Aran that had aged quite nicely and the color was a great choice for the sweater.

The knitting took me less than 2 weeks, mainly because I was racing to see if I would run out of yarn, and, of course, I did. I thought finding more yarn would be hopeless, since the yarn had been in my stash for a few years, so I weighed options like shortening the body or the sleeves. Then on the off chance that I could find more yarn I browsed stash yarn in Ravelry and found that it was a pretty common color.

Then I found a yarn store several states away that still had it. Whoo hoo! When I got it (2 more balls) I discovered that it was even the same dyelot! Double whoo hoo!


So I finished the sweater with the sleeves and body just the right length and found great buttons but when I tried it on it just wasn't the total love fest that I imagined it would be. It sat the rest of the summer in the corner and had a little time-out.

I kept trying it on and trying to pinpoint what I didn't like about the sweater and I decided that it was the neckline. It was too wide on me and looked stretched out and (floppy? wimpy? I can’t really think of how to describe it) unflattering. Not to mention that the cast on edge--the neck edge--already looked worn from just the trying-on sessions.

I had the idea to crochet a scallop around the neckline, hoping it might draw the neck in and make the cast on edge a little more substantial. I wasn't completely sure if the scallop would go with the style of the sweater, but since it is pretty girlie, I thought it would.


But I had very little yarn left:

And I am very new to crochet and I didn't want to mess it up. I didn't want to crochet part of it and run out of yarn or worse, have it look terrible and then have the edge even more worn after I had to rip it out.

A few months later, I was determined to "make it work". Armed with an hour of complete peace and quiet and strong coffee, I grabbed a beginner crochet book, my hook, my meager yarn leftovers, and I practiced on the back of the neck, figuring out the spacing I would need. Above is a photo of the neck halfway through.

I stopped and ripped about 3 times, trying it on after almost every few scallops to see if it was lying flat. As you can see below, it doesn't look fabulous when it isn't being worn:

But when I am wearing it the scallops spread out a little and lie flat. Just right. Adding the crochet really tightened up the neckline so it isn't so wide and made it much more flattering on me. And I like the feminine touch it added to all that garter stitch on the yoke.

In the end, just a little tweaking took a sweater that I felt meh about to a sweater that I now LOVE.

Specs:

Pattern: February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne

Yarn:Debbie Bliss Merino Aran Color 325701 (what I would call "cadet blue") 12 balls.

Mods: Added crochet scallop around neck.

Notes: I LOVE THIS SWEATER! Many exclamation points!!!!
A few more photos over on Ravelry.