F is for Flair

Flair has actually been finished since last week, but I've had serious issues getting a decent photo of it (apparently impossible to get one of myself in it AND impossible for the BF to work a camera properly...)

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pattern: Wendy Bernard's Flair
Yarn: Mission Falls 1824 100% superwash wool, colour: Cocoa (I think...or possibly "Earth")
Needles: size 5mm Denise interchangeables

Do I like it? the jury's still out. It's way to big for me. I did it in the large, and added more swing to it, so it's kind of my own fault. I don't know if I can bring myself to tear it back at this point though. It's totally comfy and I will still wear it.

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Modifications: well I added AT LEAST 5 inches to the length, and I still find it too short for my liking. It still hits me at the top of the hips, and this is not because I am tall (far from it) but I think more because my "shelf" boobs hike it up overall. I'm starting to clue in that you need to be a stick in order to have handknit items actually look good on you. It may be a sea of hats and scarves for me from here on in. I also have a lot more buttons on mine. If I did it again I think I'd space them further apart. I don't think I spaced them as far apart as the pattern called for, and because I added to the length, it made for a lot more buttons overall. I chose some white squares because I thought it would be a nice "mod" touch, but now I'm finding them a bit too stark and I may swap them out for some darker ones after all.

Sorry, these are all flash photos so they're not necessarily the truest representation. In terms of the yarn...I really liked it at first. For 100% wool, it was as soft as cotton. It was a bit of a pain because it was a 4-ply and seemed to split really easily. Every now and then I would run into a knot in it as well, but it was usually a knot within one of those "plys" instead of the whole strand of yarn that you could untie so it was a bit of a bitch to deal with.

I also made the neck about an inch and a half higher, and I really liked it, it was my favourite part. And then I blocked it. And while I needed to block this sweater to get all the curled edges out and to add a couple inches to the length, it wound up making the neck all floppy, and now it doesn't stand up on it's own the way I originally liked. Apparently I should have blocked everything BUT the neck! I may reblock the neck to try and stiffen it up a bit.

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Also, because this wool was such a loose ply it really made it difficult to put the buttons on the inside flap (not visible) with minimal pucker. I re-did them about three times, and am satisfied with the final results (though I still notice it...) but it can't be helped. The interior buttons are sewn on so loose they are barely hanging on, but because this sweater is so baggy I'm just pulling it on over my head anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

Anyway, I think that's all you could have ever POSSIBLY needed to know about this project, and I am more than ready to move on from it!

Wow, re-reading this I sound like a serious complainer, so I really should iterate that I actually liked this pattern and enjoyed knitting it. I am as usual, hyper-critical about my own role in it!