York

Here it is:

It's the first actual sweater that I actually finished knitting. Then it sat, and sat, and sat on the to be blocked/finished pile for about 6 months. I finally rescued it...took a deep breath and tackled the collar. I would probably approach this process much differently in hindsight but as it was I found that if I picked up the number of stitches stated in the pattern I couldn't get the ribbing pattern to stay true in certain parts of the collar. I decided that I would rather have ribbing that was one stitch wider in parts of the collar rather than have collar ribbing that was offset to the ribbing on the body. I thought it would be less disruptive to the eye. Not my idea of a perfect solution/result though. :( But since I had never done a collar before I wanted to "follow the directions" and see what would happen. Now that I know what happens I feel more confident to branch out the next time and do it my own way. Also, if I do this pattern again (which I might because I deserve a cute little cardi don't I?) I will knit the body a bit longer than the pattern calls for - it is on the border of being too short for my liking although hubby claims to be satisfied with it. He also says it is REALLY warm. He wears it out but sheds it asap when he comes back inside.
Anyhow, the stats:
Pattern: York from Jane Ellison Noro Knits
Yarn: Noro Kureyon # 52 (I think that was the color number)
What I learned: Hmmm...well I learned the Kureyon is rather rough and scratchy to work with but it does "bloom" and get softer with a pre-blocking soak in Euclan. Not sure if it is soft enough to make a pullover out of but perfectly lovely for a cardigan. I don't think Kureyon is the best spun yarn either. It can go from thick to alarmingly thin - so we will see if York springs a leak in the future! Despite these issues I remain a devotee of Noro - you just can't beat the colors & all of the design possibilites they offer.