A long time for such a little sweater

Finally. I've finished my Soldier's Sweater from "Runway Knits." I bought the yarn in August and probably started it in October. For me, it was incredibly tedious to knit. Just lots and lots of ribbing. I would get bored with it and set it aside. In the end, it came out so tiny. My local yarn store thought my test swatch was OK because it was ribbed and the wool could be blocked stretched out. I did that, but then it just scrunched back up later. So I've got this itty-bitty sweater that barely fits -- but at least I can squeeze into it.





(Boy, you don't notice that you really don't look good from the back till you take a photo like this. My butt, my hair, everything was W-E-I-R-D. Thank goodness for cropability!)



I used Cascade 220, a nice, economical wool. I bought the buttons at Village Wools. I wanted the buttons to be special, and these are really pretty.

My biggest problem was in picking up stitches to do the front band. I didn't pick up nearly enough, and I thought it wouldn't really matter. But the band was so tight that the sweater puckered up, like this:


So I had to undo it and pick up way, way more stitches. Initially I did one per row, so this time I did two per row through much of it. I can see that it still could have used some more. The pattern urges you to pick up a lot of stitches around the curve of the front/bottom, and that is why.

Original pattern: