FO: Shauna

Yay! She’s done! And just in time for me to cast on something else during the Olympics tonight.

And although I would have preferred that the sweater had come out a little bit larger, I still love it. I know it doesn’t really look like it’s too small, and it’s certainly wearable – but it feels just a little small. And having had the experience of wearing one that was 2″ larger, I can definitely tell the difference. It’s the difference between an A- and an A+. But I don’t think I’ll complain about the A-.

Although I’ve done an all-over-cabled sweater before, this one was at a much smaller gauge. It was also a new experience in being my first saddle shoulder.

The pattern is thoughtfully designed to match up the cables at the underarms and neck. Since the sweater and the sleeves are worked in the round, it knits up quicker than you’d think, since there’s not a lot of purling. The fitted look is totally due to the 3″ of negative ease – there’s no waist shaping. I’d been aiming for 1″ negative ease, which would still have looked a little more like this. May have to make that sweater, too.

Pattern: Shauna, by Louet (Ravelry page here)
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm (plus smaller needles for hem edges)
Yarn: Louet Gems Sport Weight Merino, about 5.5 skeins, in “Cream”
Ravelry: Project page

Modifications: I increased the length of the body and sleeves by one pattern repeat. For the sleeve increases, I did a left lifted increase followed by a right lifted increase, rather than doing two M1′s in a row. Since the increases aren’t actually shown on the chart, I’m not sure whether you were supposed to do them on the row the new stitches appear or the one before – I did them on the row before. Otherwise, I would have been trying to increase stitches and cable them at the same time.