The payoff

There has been a little bit of radio silence here on the blog, but that's only because I've been spending every spare moment working on either my knit-along sweater or my prism quilt. Uh, and trying to buy a house. But nothing big going on :) I am happy to say that because of all this hard work, I've finished the first, made major progress on the second and may have accomplished the third as well. Yay for hard work paying off!  Sorry about the picture, but it's been raining all day and I had to make do with indoor lighting.

My sweater. The lovely Quinn. I can't believe I've finished my first sweater. It fits like a glove, can you believe it? I love the drape, the length, the color (which is much brighter in person), the collar, the sleeves. That last I am relieved about, because I am VERY particular about my sleeves. There are a few things I have learned with this attempt that I will take with me to the next sweater. And yes, there will be a next sweater because I've been bitten by the bug and found out that its not as scary as I thought. Anyway, lessons learned:

• A swatch is of uber importance. Yes, everyone and anyone who has knit a sweater will tell you this. Listen! It is sooooo important to fit!
• It takes a long time to finish (at least for me!) but it flies by. Don't be intimidated by how long it may take.
• The stitch counts they give you? They are important. Especially when you do the shaping. Unfortunately, I cavalierly disregarded the count, and now my shaping is off-center.
• Go with your gut instincts. And fix your mistakes, before you get too far along. I noticed the whole-row mistake in the lacework in the yoke only a couple rows later, but I kept going, convincing myself it wasn't very noticeable. And you may not even be able to see the mistake, but I do. Every time I look at the sweater. Every. Time.

I'm still pretty happy with the end result and I'm very excited to wear it. My fingers are itching to start another sweater already, but I'm thinking I'll try something a little smaller, maybe? I finished this one in about a month, so that means I could potentially finish 6 more before Christmas...kind of a sick thought, huh?