Christmas Knitting

This is a little project that I've been working on since June, but due to problems with gauge and general stupidity on my part, it's taken me three times longer to complete than it should have.

Happily, since I am fully aware of my general stupidity and the capricious whims of the Knitting Fates, I began this project in June. As I said.

(The color in the photo above is the most accurate)

This is called Elegant V-Neck Cardigan from Creative Knitting Magazine (November, 2008). It's knit with Lion Brand Homespun, a wonderfully soft and squishy boucle yarn that I hope will hold up decently, but we shall have to wait and see.

I had huge problems with getting gauge, and received a hard lesson on the importance of counting stitches exactly right. 19 stitches over 4 inches versus 20 stitches over 4 inches doesn't seem like a lot, but when multiplied over 20 inches, that meant that my first attempt at this cardigan was about 4 inches wider than it should have been.

Not good.

So, after a restart, things seemed to go swimmingly until I came to several points where I was supposed to measure length. For some odd reason, my tape measure was toying with my sanity and I started to work the sleeves three inches before I should have. Hence, the overall body wasn't long enough.
Did I mention this was boucle yarn? Thankfully, it hides artistic differences (*cough cough* major $*%&%^ errors) quite well. I picked up the stitches from the bottom hem and did a few more inches of garter stitch to lengthen the cardigan.

Even the button gave me problems! The first button I picked was very cute, but when I sewed it on the cardigan, it was just too small to match the poofy yarn. Thankfully I happened to find this one, which suits the cardigan (and I hope the recipient) much better.
Whew! Another Christmas present wrapped and waiting under the tree. Now I just have to wait on pins and needles (sorry, it's a knitter's favorite bad pun) to see if all my hard work will result in a blobulous mass of ill-fitting red sweater.
(for more patterns specs, visit my Ravelry page here)