Done at last: Wanderling sweater

I cast this sweater on on 31/08/2015 and today it is FINALLY (and wholly unseasonably) finished!

Wanderling sweater in Drops Alpaca (colourway: Dark Grey): front view

It did not really take me the better part of nine months to knit this. I knitted the body in 20 days, finishing it on 19 September 2015. After some initial false starts, I really enjoyed knitting the body of the jumper and thought I would finish quickly. But then I just... stalled. Every so often I'd pick it up and force myself to knit a little bit more of the very boring stocking stitch sleeves, but then I'd get fed up and stop again. I started knitting again with about a third of one sleeve done on 1 May 2016, and I finished knitting on the 17th. So, in fact, this jumper took me about 40 days, give or take a day or two, they were just rather spread out over nine months! It's meant I've finished the jumper just in time for me to put it away for at least 3-4 months until the weather cools down, but at least it's not lurking about unfinished in my knitting bag any more. \o/

Wanderling sweater in Drops Alpaca (colourway: Dark Grey): back view

The pattern is Wanderling by Isabell Kraemer (Ravelry link), and I found it to be an excellent pattern. I'd definitely knit more of this pattern writer's creations based on this experience. I am very far from an experienced knitter of jumpers, but my finished jumper looks surprisingly good to me. Although I really struggled with the neckline at the start and had to rip back to nothing four separate times, that was all due to my novice knitting rather than the pattern.

I was particularly attracted to the pattern by the panel of sort of faux cabling at the back that also runs in bands along the raglan sleeve and down the side of the jumper.

Close up of the back panel. My hairy yarn means the stitch definition isn't that great, but it still looks nice!

It was very easy to learn the stitches for the panel and I don't have too many mistakes in it!

You can maybe just about make out the lines of the same stitch pattern down the side of the jumper

I used Drops Alpaca, which is a relatively inexpensive 100% Alpaca 4-ply yarn, in the Dark Grey colourway. I like the finished garment a lot in this yarn and found it very easy to knit with, but the stitch definition is probably not the greatest if you're looking for those mock cables to show up really clearly. It remains to be seen whether it's a bit itchy to wear. It was very hairy and shed all over everything while I was making it, and presumably will continue to shed all over everything forever.

Neckline detail

I also really liked the neckline which is a sort of henley neck thing with two buttons (which are just BARELY visible in my photo).

I ramped the exposure all the way up to be visible on this shot, I don't actually glow

Size wise, I made a size L. I quite like the bust fit, but I wish I had made the jumper just a little bit longer, and the sleeves a little bit shorter (they grew more on blocking that I anticipated). Neither of these problems will prevent me from wearing the sweater, for sure. I did a horrible job blocking the sweater -- I realized too late I'd pinned it wrong, which is why the back looks like it drags to one side. It'll probably sort itself out when I wear it a bit more and it relaxes back into shape.

In conclusion: Yay! Finished sweater!

Next up on my needles: I already have another WIP which I cast on last year. It's a very simple scarf, but I decided to try out lace weight yarn so it's taking approximately forever to make any progress at all! Once that is done, I am not sure at all what I'll knit next. I'm pretty sure I'll be going through my Ravelry queue quite a lot over the next few weeks.