FO: Petra

I've saved my favorite for last in this week's FO parade. This is my new favorite sweater. It took less than a week and I loved every minute of knitting it.

Pattern: Petra, by Julie Weisenberger of cocoknits. Size 37".

I love the design of this sweater. It is worked all in one piece from the bottom up. You cast on enough stitches for the back, then increase every other row to add stitches for the front. The unique method of increasing creates the little points in the fronts, and also angles the knitting, as you can see from the stripes on mine. I deliberately picked a self-striping yarn to exploit this interesting shaping.

The sleeves are knitted separately as tubes, then added to the body, and then the shoulders are given raglan shaping. The collar is just an extension of the fronts.

Yarn: Noro Transitions.

I love the yarn, too. Like most Noro yarns, it is a little rough in the skein, but softens when worked, and becomes quite soft and drapey after washing. It is a unique yarn, since the fiber content changes with the colors, giving it a variegated texture. It's bulky weight, so it knits up very quickly. (Too quickly, actually--I was a little sorry to finish this one.)

Modifications: I did have to modify this pattern to allow for greater length. This seemed more complicated than it actually was. I just worked the pattern as written, but started my waist shaping later in the pattern. Then, I added extra length again after finishing the increasing at the top of the waist shaping before beginning the armholes. I also lengthened the sleeves by quite a bit.

The yarn tricked me a little. Even though my washed swatch showed no change in gauge, this fabric grew significantly in length with washing. Both the body and sleeves grew about three inches. In fact, I ended up taking out the bindoff on the sleeves, shortening them, and binding them off again. This wasn't much of a problem, since the cuffs are knitted last, utilizing a provisional sleeve cast on.

And in case you're wondering about the gorgeous fastener, it's one of Romi's shawl pins! You can even order one of your very own here.