FO: Blueberry Cardigan

This is Blueberry Cardigan, knit using Valley Yarns Superwash Bulky. I absolutely love this sweater. I wasn't sure about it as I was knitting it -- the texture makes me think of some sort of alien life form in a sci-fi show and the grey is a little too much like a cement color. Now that it's done, I think it may be one of my most favorite winter sweaters. The texture looks better when worn and the sleeves remind me of the red queen -- I love the sleeves. I also love the stand-up collar, which is not in the pattern. It's knitted double-height and one half of it is folded down and sewn onto the neckline on the inside.

In addition to the collar, I made some other changes:

• I made the neckline narrower
• I used a 4-stitch I-cord on the fronts instead of a crochet edging. That gives a firm front and I could bury the button holes easily. The pattern calls for hook and eye closure.
• I used a few rows of purl stitches on the sleeve openings instead of a crochet edging. I gathered in the sleeve openings also.
• I added some waist shaping by doing some decreases from the underarms to the waist before starting the 2nd wider stitch pattern for the hips.
• I changed the stitch pattern to a 6-row repeat instead of 4 rows. The two additional rows are just the simple ribbing, which makes the texture less puffy and also makes the sweater faster to knit.

The sweater is quite heavy because of the large amount of yarn needed due to the puffy stitch pattern. It's quite warm, and very easy and comfortable to wear.