Tinderiffic!

It's done!

Over the past week, I've done lots of mattress stitching, sewing in of ends and careful picking up and knitting of a button band.  I also did careful picking up and knitting of a buttonhole band, worked out Mr Flood's instructions for a one-row buttonhole, did about two-thirds of the buttonholes feeling rather pleased with myself and then realised that even though I could do the buttonholes ok, I'd done my maths wrong, so had to unpick them and do them again.

The result?

Sorry the picture's a bit pants - I think I had my camera on a lamp-light setting at this point (oops).

Here's the sleeve, with the cuff turned back (the sleeves are supposed to be knuckle length and the ribbings just over 4" in length).

 I bought some buttons off eBay, crossing fingers that they'd be the right size (the description said they were 3/4" in diameter and the pattern said I'd need that size of button).  I think they look fine - I didn't want anything fancy because of the sweater's stitch pattern.

I also decided to sew in some ribbon where I'd picked up the stitches for the collar and the bands.  I couldn't get grey, so bought some plain black and some black with white polka-dots and it was the spotty ribbon that I went with.

There were a couple of reasons for adding the ribbon.  First off, it covers up the picked-up area and I think it makes it look a bit more finished.  Secondly, it helps to give a bit of stability, especially in a garment such as this which has taken approx 700g of yarn and could sag with wear.

I didn't wet block it, but steamed it and then stretched it out on my bed to dry off completely.  After all, am I likely to wet block it each time I wash it?  Let's face it, the answer to that is "no"!

Am I pleased with it?

Definitely.

Some details:

I used 3.75mm and 4.5mm needles rather than the 4mm and 5mm specified in the pattern.  I usually find with Jared Flood patterns that I have to go down a needle size (I think JF's a tight knitter).

I changed the raglan slightly by doing them as stocking stitch rather than k1, p1, dec (reversing for the other side).  I also sewed it up using a full stitch as a seam allowance rather than the 1/2 stitch as the pattern was written.

Yarn is Patons Diploma Gold Aran in a steel grey colour (which I bought three years ago in a sale, if my memory's correct).

I weighed the sweater after I'd finished the knitting, with the ends not sewn in and it was 718g, so used 1182m (thank you to Ravelry's yarn calculation gizmo thingy).

I'm now back to rippling DD2's blanket and knitting my yellow stripey socks.