Candide Aran Cardigan DONE

I should have titled this post, "Ready for St. Patrick's Day 2014." ;-)

In a fit of Type-A obsessive-compulsive pique, I finished my Candide Aran cardigan yesterday in a marathon of YouTube watching, picking up stitches, knitting, seaming, more YouTube watching, button sewing, and ends-weaving. I couldn't bear to see all the panels draped around the house anymore and was feeling immense guilt about starting a new sweater project with this one not officially finished.



What I love about it: it represents five months of solid knitting work for me, meaning I didn't work on much else except for a couple small Christmas gifts. I loved working with the yarn, Briggs & Little Heritage -- such a pleasure for my hands and a very sheepy Canadian wool. :) I love the real leather buttons. I love that I was totally terrified and cowed by this pattern, but I went for it anyway, and I love that I learned a lot knitting this sweater, everything from how to cable without a cable needle to not minding too much about ripping days worth of work out to fix an error and how to drop stitches down to reknit a mis-crossed cable. (I did that last one a couple times. I felt like such a knitting stud!) I love that mom, when she saw the pictures, said, "You could make a pretty penny selling that sweater." LOL. As if!



What I don't love about it: it's about a size too big for me, and I'm losing weight right now, so it's only going to look baggier on me. The stitches are kind of wonky looking, but I haven't blocked the sweater yet; fingers crossed everything will smooth out. The seaming was a beast, especially on the shoulders. I know in a few years I'll look back and be embarrassed by my amateur work.



On the other hand, I did my best with the skills I have today, and you know what? I think it looks pretty damn good for my first Aran sweater. I'll be wearing it with pride, baggy or not.

My Ravelry notes here.