This is the Gyre Cardigan knitted with Valley Yarns Stockbridge, a merino and alpaca blend. I liked this pattern when I first saw it because it has a hippy-dippy 70s vibe to it. After I looked at some of the finished ones on ravelry I decided that perhaps it was a bit too much hippy-dippy. Also, several knitters said that the garment is really voluminous. The back sections looked a little too lumpy to me because of the changing gauge with the different stitch patterns and the large number of stitches increased after the dropped stitches. I decided to simplify things by not doing any increases after the dropped stitch section and just do stockinette. I used a border of broken rib at the bottom and also for the armhole bands. I shortened the dropped stitch section to 5 inches from 7 which reduces some of the hippy-dippyness. Finally, I made it at least 4 inches shorter than the pattern's length. The finished sweater is still a bit too large but the shawl pin holds it in really nicely, so I'm very happy with it.
To give the front edges a more finished look, I added a couple of stitches to each side and slipped the first and last 2 knit stitches on every knit row to give it a quasi I-cord look.
