My "Work In Progress" Noro Sweater

For the first time, in a very long time, I am excited about a sweater I am knitting. In the past I have had to knit with the goal of being able to sell that particular yarn or pattern. I found that very restrictive. Especially having to knit in absolute accordance with the pattern. But this project is all about me. And I like to improvise. My sweater will be quite different from the one shown in the pattern's photo. I have altered the stitch gauge, to make the sweater longer, and added more rows to make it wider. Here are the back and 2 front pieces. I love that it is knit vertically, as I am getting quite pudgy in my old age.

I did not have enough of the Noro Kureyon yarn to knit the sweater with long sleeves, and I like 3/4 sleeves, anyway. Since the sleeves were supposed to be knit from the cuff to the shoulder I had to reverse engineer them to be knit from the shoulder down. When I ran out of yarn, that would determine the length of my sleeves. The sleeves are knit horizontally and I was able to manipulate the stripe sequence in order to make the sleeves identical (spit splicing is our friend).

I have barely enough of the Noro yarn left to seam up the pieces. I will use the solid color yarn (at the top of the first picture) to knit the trim and button bands. I may also add a little bit of crochet to the edges. We'll see. I chose brass colored buttons that have a woven pattern, in honor of my new weaving adventures.