Verchères en violet

This has been a long time in the making, I bought the yarn for this (Cascade Yarns Heritage Silk, 85% merino, 15% mulberry silk)  in July 2013 and started working on a pattern in the Amy Herzog book "Knit to Flatter". However, by the second sleeve, I knew that I wasn't in love with that sweater (though I learned a lot about sweater construction and how to custom fit for me so it certainly can't be considered a waste of time). This is the sweater that is on the cover of the Winter 2014 Interweave Knits - Verchères Pullover.

Since I had a sweater's worth of yarn in a colour I liked, I didn't even try to get the suggested yarn. However, my gauge was different enough that I had to recalculate all the stitch counts. I consider it a small mercy that my row gauge was exactly the same.

I also discovered the zen of sewing seams. Because this texture or pattern is horizontal, it is very unforgiving of any errors in the side seams, or under the sleeves. The pattern must match at the seams exactly, or else errors would be highly visible.

The other thing I discovered is I'm really not as young as I like to think I am and I had to wait for a sunny day when I was at home in order to do this work. The dark yarn was too hard to see at night - even with a good light. I also learned the value of basting in the sleeves to set the location and then sewing properly after. What this gives me is a sweater that moves with me, and doesn't bunch up under the arms even though it has about an inch of negative ease.