I finished the Buckbeak sweater I mentioned back in July. I actually finished the sweater a week or two ago, and I’m just finally getting around to showing all of you. I got really nervous about blocking it–I had nightmares of my beautiful superwash wool stretching out into a shapeless blob–but everything went well. All the colorwork stretched out just enough to look even and be comfortable without losing its shape, and the length came out really nicely. As I was knitting, I wasn’t sure I loved how low the stripe of colorwork was, but the first time I tried on the sweater I realized how genius the placement was–the colorwork pulls in just a bit to define a waistline on the sweater before the black section flares out. That was probably obvious to more experienced knitters, but I didn’t really get that the stranded work was doing that all by itself. You learn something knew every day.

This was my first time doing German short rows and i-cord bind off, and only the second time I’ve done stranded colorwork. I didn’t do any of them perfectly, but there’s nothing hideously wrong with the sweater and I’m really proud of myself. It’s still too warm here to wear my new sweater all day but I threw it on long enough to get some pictures of how it fits.

As you can see, I don’t own fancy blocking tiles or anything. Just a kitchen table and a lot of cheap fleece blankets. Whatever works, right?

I have a fair bit of yarn left, so I’ll probably make some cute arm warmers to match the sweater. That ought to keep my hands busy for another couple weeks. Hope your fall projects are at least as cozy as mine.