A Gold Medal Day!

It started here, somehow.

Pictures of this beautiful sweater, knit by a Japanese knitter, floated around the blogging world. At least the knitting, blogging world. And then Theresa knit hers for the 2006 Knitting Olympics. Someone knit this amazing sweater in 16 days! Maybe I could do it? I bought the yarn in May, and by July of 2006, I'd cast on.

Now, in February of 2010 (February 19, to be exact) I cast off.

I cast off in a lovely tubular cast off. I wove in my ends, popped the sweater in a bath, and by midnight, it was laying out to dry.

I've had it on ever since.


Am Kamin

• From the Japanese book, New Style of Heirloom Knitting
• 8 skeins of Cascade 220, Color 9404, Ruby
• Knit on size 4 and 6 (mostly 6) needles
• Pattern is one size -- I made it larger than designed.  Actually since I cast on for this sweater, I've started making my sweaters closer fitting.  I think I'll be fine with this more boxy fit -- it's a sweater I want to still be wearing 20 years from now, so classic fit and style is fine.  
• La Mode buttons - I bought 4 different buttons for this sweater.  My daughter helped me choose the heart ones.  They're from JoAnn's Fabric.  I'm not a fan of JoAnn's.  I had to pay an extra fee to have the buttons I need sent from another store.  I'm waiting for the rest of the buttons, but I'm wearing my sweater anyway. 

This is the first button I tried - it's the same shape as the one in the pattern book, but isn't red:

Then I found these wonderful buttons at a trunk show for Black Water Abbey yarns.  I decided the pewter buttons contrasted too much, and distracted from the intricate cables of the sweater.

The plain red buttons were from Sandy's Fabric downtown.  They would have been fine.

But, like Goldilocks, I thought these hearts were just right.

They have the irregular shape that was part of the appeal to me of the original leaf buttons, and they're close in color to the sweater.


Many thanks to Tracey, whose emergency skein of yarn, I'm a little embarrassed to say, I didn't need.  But knowing it was there made the last bit of knitting easier.  

The neckline of the sweater has stretched a bit as I've worn it over the last couple of days, so I may wash & reblock the sweater and then add some ribbon around the neck to stabilize it.  Any other ideas? 
This wonderful cable is only on the arm. This color is truer in these indoor pictures, I think.


Crunchy, cabley goodness!