FO: Girl Friday

Pattern: Girl Friday, from the most recent Fall Knitty.
Yarn: Valley Yarns Northampton in Amethyst, almost four skeins.
Needles: US 8/5 mm
Mods: Changed the lace pattern to omit the purl bits, did fewer sleeve increases, increased length.

So I’m completely in love with this sweater. Great color, great pattern. Warm. I LOVE the shawl collar. The sleeve caps came out a little short (my fault), but totally wearable. The sleeves are long enough and the body is long enough. LOVE. I will wear it all the time. Especially since the shawl collar will protect my neck when I flip it up.

So: Great sweater. I made the XS which resulted in sweater fronts that aren’t quite wide enough, but fortunately, I love how the sweater looks with an open front. My original plan was to do button loops and buttons, but I decided against it. I wear my cardigans open most of the time anyway.

I’m really glad I changed the lace pattern too. The purl bits made the lace look too arrow-like to me, so I just replaced them with knits. And now I have diamond-type things, and I love it.

The pattern is great though. Clear and easy to follow, and I love the extra-long sleeves. They’re actually perfect for me–I wear all of my sleeves rather long. The yarn is also quite lovely. I used Valley Yarns Northampton, which I got from WEBS. I think I used about 3.5 skeins. I obviously can’t comment on wear and tear or how it holds up over time, but it seems to be a pretty sturdy yarn. It’s definitely a lot… beefier than the Wool of the Andes or Cascade Eco I’d used in sweaters before. It’s a little heavy (though I think thinner than the 220 I’m using for another sweater currently).

Anyway, I will definitely be getting a ton of wear out of this sweater. I’m ridiculously thrilled with how it came out, and it looks pretty great on me, if I do say so myself (and I do).