Finished!

Pattern: Baby Bolero from One Skein
Yarn: Blue Skye Alpaca Organic Cotton, Sand
Started: March 14, 2007
Completed: April 2, 2007
Notes: For the first time in my knitterly life, I used the recommended yarn.
Problems:

1. Total knitting time on this sweater was almost exactly the same as the seaming time. Regardless of what I may have inadvertently implied in my last post, the seaming time I was complaining about wasn't related to my avoidance of it (does that make sense?), rather I was lamenting the amazing amount of time I was putting in for something so small and easy looking. Silly me.
   
2. In the pic below there's this wee hiccup in the adding of the ribbed edging. After about 4 rip outs, I decided that this was an error I could live with. The stitch before the hiccup is about two rows below the stitch after, and nothing I tried seemed right. In fear of the consequences of continuing, I gave up. See #4.
   
3. The directions (which have been complained about on various other blogs) call for a light blocking. I highly recommend a nice heavy wetting and firm block. The heck with them.
4. When seaming with lightly spun yarn, be careful of ripping out your imperfect stitches one too many times. Why? It's not pretty to cry in the lunchroom at work when you're seaming the same armhole for the 4th time and the yarn breaks. Falls apart in your fingers. After you take a moment to collect yourself and convince your trembling mind that you could do this it breaks again. Too short to weave in. Yes, I cried.
   

The thing I'm most proud of, though, is that I did all this seaming (which I know I have complained loudly about) without visual aid. Yup, I had no book or website to guide me, even though I'd been sent links. When I started I couldn't find the book I'd used the last time I set a shoulder in, and the computer was too far away (I know, that sounds pathetic. Getting off the couch is a little tricky right now, and not at all graceful.). I ended up being amazingly particular about each freakin' stitch, and all kinds of proud that I finished. Now, I just have 2 more to do.