Done!

The woolen sweater I knit from the Briggs and Little bargain bin ($2 a skein, with something like 270 yds. per skein, but I digress), is D-O-N-E. I bought 8 skeins of this yarn but used only four skeins plus a smidgen of a 5th, so the sweater cost me, at most, $8.50. I have enough yarn left over for another sweater, for sure. I knew I was taking a risk when I bought this yarn, because I didn't know if the skeins were made up of a million pieces of yarn tied together in knots, or what. As it turned out, the skeins were continuous yarn, and the yarn itself is, I think, a nice wool. I love to come across the occasional tiny bit of hay or straw while I'm knitting. It puts me "at one," so to speak, with the sheep who generously donated her fleece for my personal use. I came across a few bits of hay/straw in this yarn, so that made me happy.

I used a Knitting Pure and Simple pattern. I love these patterns because they are knitted from the top down and there are no seams to sew once the project is knitted! Sewing up sleeve and side seams is not my idea of fun.

I did run into one glitch, however, which caused me to put the sweater aside for about a week as I wandered the house aimlessly, trying to figure out what to do to correct the problem: I had one sleeve almost done when I realized it was much too fitted, to the point of being uncomfortable. I tried to tell myself I could stretch the sleeve when blocking the finished sweater, but in my heart I knew I'd better not risk it. So, finally, I raveled the sleeve, made a few changes in the pattern, re-knitted that sleeve , tried it on, liked the result, and knitted the other sleeve the same.
Voila! I have a sweater, this time for myself, made of a great wool. It'll surely keep me warm this winter here in Maine. (It was 16° here early this morning.)