Sweaterday: Vivian is done!

I’m very excited to show you my finished Vivian! My friend Drew was able to snap some shots of me wearing the jacket while we sat in The Bean Cycle on my day off, and she did a fabulous job!

If you look at the sleeves, you can see that I’ve folded back the cuff a good five or six inches. If I were to make this sweater again using this yarn, I’d probably leave off the last cable repeat on the sleeves. Perhaps another yarn would not grow quite so much in the blocking process, but this was a little ridiculous.

Now, I love Ysolda’s designs and think she is a brilliant designer, but I’m really kind of annoyed that stitch counts are not provided, following the shoulder shaping. That’s the biggest reason why I don’t have a hood on the back of my Vivian. My stitch count is obviously wrong, based on how the hood is supposed to flow out of the shoulders, but without anything to check myself against, I figured that ripping back to the shoulders would be a waste of time, since I could get it wrong every time. Instead, I worked the hood portion for a few rows, and then worked two short rows on either side in the seed stitch portion of the back, to give it a little bit of lift.

Overall, I’m happy with the way Vivian turned out, but between the sleeves (my fault) and the hood snafu (not entirely my fault), I’m not as thrilled as I wanted to be. I must say though that the sweater is super comfy and snuggly to wear.

Details!
Pattern: Vivian by Ysolda Teague, Twist Collective Winter 2008 (My project notes)
Yarn: Cascade Eco+ in Spruce. I used about 3½ skeins
Needles: US 8 (5 mm)
Modifications: The only modifications I made are in the hood/collar portion, otherwise everything is as written in the pattern.