That's right. Dad's Aran is as done as the turkey on Thursday. Or maybe the stuffing which was gone after about 15 minutes. Seriously, for some reason no matter how much my dad makes, there's never any leftovers of stuffing to go along with the leftover potatoes and turkey and pie the next day. It's some seriously delicious stuffing (my mouth is now watering and I've just eaten lunch, go figure).
Now. You may notice if you look carefully that something seems a little off with the seams on the sleeves (how's that for alliteration?) That would be because at 11:30 when I was attaching the sleeves, I somehow managed to attach them upside down so the increases run along the top of the arm to the shoulder. Ooops. Naturally, it being 11:30 at night, I did what any sensible person would do and I took this picture and said in my best Scarlett O'Hara voice "I don't want to think about that now, I'll think about it tomorrow." So I put it away to deal with this evening when I get home. I'm still quite pleased with the sweater. It's gigantic, so I'm fairly certain that despite being worsted weight yarn, it met the requisite 50,000+ stitches for NaKniSweMo. I may actually unravel the bottom and shorten it a bit since Dad's fairly short and the torso on this bad boy is way too long.
All told I probably used 8.5 skeins of the yarn so with the unravelling I could've gotten away with only 8 skeins, but definitely would not have finished before the deadline.
Pattern: Aran Sweater by Lion Brand
Yarn: Bartlett Yarn Fisherman 2-ply
Needle: US 6 and US 8
Modifications: Body and sleeves knit in the round for almost no seaming (given my issues with the sleeves this was probably a very smart move on my part!) Instead of a simple ribbed neckband, I opted to double the length of the neckband and tack it down on the reverse for a more finished look. I think it makes it look much neater and more professional. ;)
Reflections on NaKniSweMo
This was an awesome experience. Definitely gave me great motivation to get a massive project like this done in a timely manner. I doubt I would've been able to finish the sweater in time for Christmas if I hadn't participated. Though I set a lot of goals and deadlines for myself this year and met quite a few of them, it seems like all the big projects tended to trip me up (see: Juno Regina, Venezia, etc.) This definitely gave me an ego boost in the FO department.
As an added bonus, because it was knit in the round, the sheer size of this knit meant that I couldn't take it on my commute which allowed me to work on other smaller projects. I think this contributed to the ease with which I could pick up the sweater when I got home since I wasn't sick to death of it. So I also have a bunch of projects that I've either finished or made good progress on while I was working on the sweater. All in all, I'm a big fan of NaKniSweMo.
