Its still too hot!

I really had wanted this to be done earlier, so that I could enjoy the cool fall weather in it, but I was sweating taking pictures of this ... and its almost NOVEMBER!

At least the leaves are still pretty. And I'm not complaining about the weather, it was beautiful today, but I love the cool cripsness of fall and it just hasn't really happened yet!

(Ilse and I seriously thinking about jumping in to cool off)
OK, the sweater, here are the details:
Pattern: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky, in the Fall, 2006 Knitscene magazine
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heathers, a green-blue gray, about 4.5 skeins
Needles: US 8s

Verdict:

hmmm...I guess I look a little stern there, not as happy as I should be looking because I really like the finished sweater and I really enjoyed this knitting. I pretty much followed the pattern exactly, and it worked out just fine, but if I were to do it again I would probably knit it in the round (body and arms). There was a lot of seaming, which I didn't enjoy (mainly, because I suck at it!). Luckily, I got some help from the Ravelry Central Park Hoodie KAL. Darn, I don't mean to be negative - I liked this project! It was fun to knit, went fairly quickly, and the pattern was well written. I love the components: the cables, the hood, that its a cardigan. And it fits (the ultimate sign of a good pattern)! Well, a modification, it fits now - it was a little snug right off the needles, so I soaked it in some soak (I'm a fan of Aquae), then pinned it to the floor (I have carpet now, making blocking much easier!) (and with a clean garbage bag underneath to prevent mildewey eueew) according to the measurements in the pattern and voila:

Now it fits!

Modifications:

The main/only modification was that I didn't seam the hood, I grafted (My favorite Kitchner Stitch link) it. I'm not great at grafting either, as you can tell, but I am getting better! And, this definitely looks neater than a big seam, right?

OK, now confession. I can't pay attention. I had issues with one of the arms and had to rip it out because I wasn't following the increases. And the cables. Remember my back cable mistake early in the project? Well, I didn't fix it and it ended up OK because the hood covered up the nastiness nicely:

But, then I went and did it again, in a noticeable area: the arm. Yes, the same arm that I had already ripped out once. And I was about 20 rows up by the time I noticed this:

Of course, this had to be fixed ... but ripping?
Nope. Someone linked me to this tip from the Yarn Harlot, and I think that the quick and dirty worked out pretty well:

You can tell, but this became less noticeable after washing. And its not a mis-crossed cable now. But I can see how this could bother a person. It just didn't bother me enough to justify ripping out the arm a second time.

One more thing, because buttons really are hard to find and it took me a bit to find these:

Buttons from JoAnn's. Blah, I know, but I got lucky and they were 40% off, randomly, so it was $5.35 for 6 buttons and peanut M+Ms (I don't do that often, I had missed lunch due to all of that seaming!). And, I liked these.

I can't wait to wear this ... I think its going to be in the LOWER 60s later this week, maybe it will be overcast t00 and I really will need a warm sweater! If not, I am sure winter is coming soon enough, I just hope that there is a little bit of autumn in the meantime.

Phew - I hope that you made it to here, and that all of the pictures loaded OK. Thanks for reading!