After reading an issue of Knitter's Review where they reviewed one of the yarns from Artfibers, I ordered a bunch of samples from them...and (this is so unlike me) fell in love with almost all of them. I restrained myself, and just ordered the yarn for this sweater first!

The neat thing about this place is that they have several different patterns to choose from that they will customize for your size and send along with the yarn. They even customized this one so that I could do it in two colors.

Here are the front and back of the sweater, completed 2/14/2003:

The sleeves are solid, all pink, and I finished those mid-March. The problem I'm having now is that I think I need to block it before I sew it up - but I've never really blocked anything before (shh, don't tell!)

Once I figure out how exactly to do that, and do it, it's only a matter of a few seams to sew and a collar to knit. Of course, as of this writing it's May, so I won't be wearing the finished sweater until the fall. Oh, well - I guess I shouldn't have procrastinated so much!

I steamed it. I steamed the heck out of it. And then I sewed it up, which was much easier since I blocked it. I may be a blocking convert! I really like how it came out, except that the sleeves are a bit long...

Even though it was about 75 degrees, I had to model it. Of course, the yarn being 100% wool means that it's going in the closet for at least a few months before I actually get to wear it for any length of time!