Done! (I hope)

The  Neck-down V-neck Shaped cardigan by Knitting Pure and Simple, which a friend asked me to knit for her adult daughter, is done. Done, I tell you.

It took me two weeks of intense knitting, usually at least three hours per day, to get 'er done. (I even knit while Ken drove us to our nephew's house for Thanksgiving dinner.)

Then, once it was done, I agonized over the sleeve lengths, so I raveled the sleeves back from the cuffs about two inches and re-knit them, adding an extra inch of length to each.

Of course, now I'm worried that the sleeves are too long. If they are, I can ravel them yet again and decrease some of that extra length. Then I'll worry that they are once again too short.

One thing I absolutely cannot do is re-knit the body of the sweater. No, spre That was a LOT of knitting, and I don't want to  repeat any of it.

In the top two photos you see the miracle that is called "blocking." In the first photo, that's the cardigan as it came off my needles.

I soaked it for an hour in cool water with Eucalan added.

I spread it out on my blocking boards, which are actually children's play mat squares, and let it dry for two days.


(That's when I decided the sleeves were too short, so here I am re-knitting the cuff end of each sleeve.)

After that, I placed the sweater on my ironing board, placed an ironing cloth over it, and gently steamed the entire thing. The yarn is an acrylic/wool blend, so I wasn't going to chance accidentally placing my iron directly onto the sweater and watching my gazillion stitches melt before my eyes.

I added my personalized knitting label, to make my work look a tad more professional.

Then I folded it carefully, with tissue paper within the folds.

I placed it inside a box, added a jute bow and one of my cold porcelain stars for pizzazz, and declared myself now able to attend to some of the much-neglected Christmas preparations in this house.

I hope Anne likes the sweater and is pleased with my work. Better yet, I hope Sarah, the sweater's recipient, declares it a perfect fit.