As Bonne Marie Would Say..."New Threads Friday!"

Finished in February and worn a lot already but not photographed* until this week......I present a new FO:

Pattern: Beryl by Bonne Marie Burns

Yarn: Cotton Ease in the discontinued black color. (I used 2 different dyelots and almost depleted my stash of black. One dyelot for the body and bands, and different dyelot for the sleeves. Because the dyelots are separated by seams, it's not noticeable.) As I've mentioned before, I know that the CE will stretch out and I knit it more tightly than the ball band suggests, at 19 st/4", which seems to help.

Notes: I had to shorten the sleeves as I do with every sweater I make. Other than that--no changes at all. I love the style of this sweater--a fun, kind of funky little suit jacket. It's hard to find a sweater like that. Dressy, but not frilly-dressy. You know what I mean?

Here it is washed out with the daylight, so you can see all the details better.

I love the stitch detail at the bottom. Those points at the hips wanted to flip up a bit, but blocking took care of it.

I also love the stitch detail on the neckband.

I ended up sewing down the placket. With regular sewing thread, not yarn. I hate a messy, gaping button band and this made it look much neater. I would never wear this particular style unbuttoned, so why not? It is very easy to slip on over the head anyway. I might start doing that more often.

*In case you are wondering about my yarny backdrop, here's the story. I was getting anxious to photograph this sweater, as it had been finished for a month but the stars had not aligned (the stars being: camera charged, good sunlight, and an additional adult at home to take the photo).

The only problem was, my house was a total mess (as is the usual when I'm getting ready for a big etsy update) and I couldn't find anywhere to stand where there wasn't a pile or papers or kids toys. My husband suggested in front of the fireplace, because that's where we usually pose the kids for family photos.

I sighed, because the mantle was filled with yarn, and said, "Ok, I'll move the yarn". He said" What knitter wouldn't want to see fabulous** yarn in the background?" I said "You have a point."

**I'm not sure if my husband actually used the word "fabulous" or if I'm making that up.