You might remember that I've recently taken up knitting. I've cabled, purled and laced my way through one jumper that didn't fit very nicely and now - oh yes, now - the almighty February Lady Sweater. You may remember from my earlier blog post (here, with pattern) that I've been at this for quite a while, and that it was giving me a wee bit of trouble. I had to unknit (tink!) a portion of the body lace. I had to weep over a purled row which should have been knit. I had to redo the same sleeve three times before it finally became compliant and was assimilated into the Borg. But now, today, this very moment, I've sewn on the last button.

And I breathe an enormous sense of relief.

Now, I know that you may have been lulled into thinking that this is a baby-sized sweater, but I assure you, it's not. Sure, it's an adaptation of Elizabeth Zimmerman's famous February baby sweater, but this is the grown-up version, the February lady sweater. I guess it didn't help that I photographed the half-done version next to my giant ball of wool, but there you go: I knitted this out of one 400g giant ball of Aran yarn.

And it's done!

















I sewed on the buttons, sewed in all the ends, sewed over little 'knit' stitches over my previously-purled button band (a common problem, it seems!) and finally, I blocked it using a lot of steam and an ironing board.

















Here's a close-up for you, because these buttons make me giddy and heart-skippy.They're a little smaller than the pattern calls for (see the giant button holes? I'll sew 'em up later if they become a nuisance), but they're oh-so-nice. They're hand-made from the branch of a hickory tree, bought from Michigan USA and shipped to me by the lovely Linda of TheHickoryTree. The crocheted flower is the perfect finishing touch to my little ensemble: it's a gift from my mother-in-law, sent in the post allllll the way from South Africa.

My first completed knitted item. Yay.