Finished - Purl Soho sweater version 2!

It's done - finally my first ever jumper/sweater/whatever, never to be unravelled and attempted again!

Don't I look happy about it? It's amazing how much easier it is to smile in these photos when there is actually someone at the camera talking to you (thanks mum! x)

So you might remember that a couple of weeks ago I posted my finished but mediocre version of the Purl Soho Cap Sleeve Lattice sweater, blogged here. I've spent the last couple of weeks serenely unravelling and reuniting the top lattice section, so it has gone from this:

Meh!

To this:

Yay!

I had been planning to use another similar pattern style (The Riverine Pullover) that had a different lace pattern in the top section, but for the life of me I just couldn't work it out! I tried for about 2 hours, and ended up unravelling it about 6 times. Finally I accepted defeat and instead looked up a basic eyelet pattern, and didn't look back. I ended up doing 6 repeats of the eyelet pattern (8 rows made up one repeat) and then used the neckline and shoulder joining technique of the Riverine Pullover to make one crazy little mashup that I am pretty happy with! I will actually wear this in public!

So, thoughts and reflections on knitting this.....
 - Cotton was not the best choice for the lattice - it was too stretchy and maybe would have worked better if I had changed down one or two needle sizes.
- The neckline was a rib of 38 bound off stitches - it is really tight, and I can only just get my head in (this will be a 'do hair and make up after getting dressed' kind of top) - it's fine once it is on but despite binding it off in rib it has zero stretch! I'd suggest rather than 38
 stitches making it maybe 44 or 46.
- I found that at each edge of the neckline bind off the first stitch on each side stretched out heaps (with both versionsactually) - I did a sneaky little tighten up when weaving in the ends but have found a great tutorial here which I will try to remember to use for future neckline bind offs.
- 3 needle bind off for seaming the shoulders was awesome!
- I was glad I added an extra inch of length to the body of the top when I first knitted it - I did the small and you can see it's pretty loose
and only just long enough!

And so I can now officially extend my sewing addiction to knitting! These photos were taken on a quick visit to my parents place in Bendigo - my mum and I had a great arvo. We went to the Bendigo Woollen Mills where I got completely discombobulated looking at their AMAZINGLY huge range of yarns (at such fantastic prices - check them out here) and I was SO disciplined and only bought yarn for one project! Then we went to the equally amazing Modern Love exhibition at the Bendigo Art Gallery - a fabulous collection of more than 50 pieces of designer clothing from the last 40 years including items by Vivien Westwood, Caroline Herrera (divine!), Chloe (gorgeous!), Lanvin (chic!), Valentino (superb!), Versace (tacky!), Alexander McQueen (bizarre!). It was dead quiet, being a Thursday arvo, and we were able to get so close to each piece - I would highly recommend it if you can get to it......