Cheadle Complete

I finished and wore Cheadle on Christmas Day. When I posted on it in November, I said that the sewing up would be easy. Was I ever wrong! The pattern never mentions this, but the bands of the braided section have to be sewn together or else the sweater stretches down and you get holes—big holes. And it's not easy sewing because of the way the bands loop together. I just sort of played it by ear leaving the sleeves open because they appear to be that way in the photo in the magazine. I checked the Rowan website and nobody has mentioned this as far as I could tell and the bands don't look like they were sewn together in the photo, so how did they solve the problem?

The Cocoon yarn is lucious and a dream to work with. Even sewing with it was easy. I was afraid that tucking in all the tails at the end would create a big bulky mess, but it worked out OK. And all my worries about not getting guage were unfounded. The sweater is plenty big enough for me.

To my horror I ran out of yarn at the very end. I was about 8 rows short on the ribbing on the sleeves. I toyed with the idea of making the ribbing shorter on both sides than the pattern calls for, and I had to use scraps to do that. (More tails to tuck in.) I didn't like the result, so I ordered another ball of yarn from Sakonnet Purls (aka LetsKnit.com) where I had bought the yarn originally. I put a note on the order asking if they had any of Lot whatever-it-was left, I would appreciate them sending that. I was prepared to get yarn that was a slightly different color from another lot, but, bless them!! They sent me what I needed. It's great doing business with a small company.