Finito!
At last, I have finished the Cotton Roll sweater. Whee! Here it is! My daughter picked out the Lego buttons.
This is my first finished sweater and I think it shows. The seams under the arms (the first ones I did on the shirt) are a lot less neat than the ones along the sides, but I don’t think you’d notice unless you were looking closely. In retrospect, I also wish I’d blocked it before I put it together, but c’est la vie. I’m chalking it up to a learning experience.
Early on, this sweater was way too short. Like, Britney Spears short. Not really what you’re looking for in a toddler boy’s sweater. So I had to rip out and put in about ten more rows. Then, of course, I ran out of yarn thiiiiis close to being done with the second sleeve. However, I wasn’t expecting it all to go perfectly, and feel that this experience will prepare me better for the next closed finished garment I may make.
I also learned that I just don’t like Manos cotton stria. It felt great and looked great on the hank, but it just feels limp when I’m working with it. I have rough hands and it snags on my fingertips. The Knitter’s Review had a review of this yarn mentioning its issues, which of course I read *after* buying the yarn. Another lesson learned! However, the ridged pattern of the sweater makes it feel kind of cushy, so that’s good.
This will go to my daughter’s kindergarten teacher. She has a 16-month-old son. This woman is very good at working to integrate my daughter into the classroom. She’s never dealt with an autistic or PDD-NOS child before, but she’s learned so much that she’ll be giving a talk at a conference on Monday. Now that’s dedication! She’s keeping notes on everything she learns so that she can make a book for other teachers in the same boat. We really, really got lucky with her, and I wanted to put a lot of effort into something for her, since she’s putting so much effort into my child.
All in all, I absolutely could not be prouder of this sweater, and I can’t wait to give it to her. There’s enough yarn left to make a matching hat, too! The cotton isn’t the best choice for that, but hey, I gotta use up this stuff somehow, and I’m on a roll!
To dreeeeaaammm…. the impossible dreeeaaammm…..
(Crossposted to knitting and my own journal.)