Frieda, she is done! Well, nearly done. There are approximately 5,132 ends left to weave in. And I’ve already woven in about 254 ends. Seriously.

If it wasn’t Sunday night already, I would take Nancy Wiseman’s advice and sit down with a glass of wine and finish weaving in the ends. (that’s the best knitting advice I’ve ever read in a book!)

I finally got around to finishing the seaming (2nd sleeve and both side seams) on Saturday afternoon. I can honestly say that I LOVE seaming! It is the neatest thing to see the pieces that you’ve knit come together as a sweater, and it goes so much faster than the actual knitting. If anyone has any seaming they need done, let me know… Will seam for yarn! :)

Anyway, here’s the finished Frieda photos, with the loose ends strategically stuffed inside the sleeves and collar. I am beyond thrilled with this sweater. It turned out absolutely perfectly. Now, if the weather would just cooperate so I can actually wear it.

Here’s a front view of the sweater -

And a side view showing the sleeve a little better -

Frieda Notes —

Pattern:
Frieda, from the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk book, in the 36″ size. The pattern was fairly well written. My only real complaint is the lack of schematics. It would have been nice to know all of the dimensions when blocking, but my guestimations worked fairly well.

Needles:
Size 6 and 8 Addi Turbos, 32″ - Love ‘em!

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in Rose. I bought one more skein than the pattern called for, and am very glad I did! I probably used 1/4 skein more than the pattern called for, most likely because of the pattern modifications that I did.

Pattern modifications:
I knit the cables into sleeves rather than attaching them later as called for in the pattern. Also, I did two fewer increases in the sleeves and added 8 rows (approx. 1″) to each sleeve.

Highlights:
- My first sweater! (ok folks, I’m running out of firsts here… guess I’m moving beyond being a newbie knitter!)
- I learned how to cable, and attempted cabling without a cable needle. I ended up using a cable needle, because an 8 stitch wide cable is slightly unwieldy without a cable needle.
- Finishing - love it! Must knit more sweaters so I can put them together!
- Love the yarn, love the pattern, love the finished sweater - what more could I ask for?

Lowlights:
- Each ball of yarn only has about 70 yards of yarn on it. I knit through a ball of yarn in 1-2 hours. This made for lots of loose ends to weave in at the end (see above)
- The ribbed collar took forever and was by far the least fun part of the sweater to knit.

What I would do differently next time: Nothing, really. I’m very happy with this sweater! If I made another one, I’d probably try a different yarn - something a little less pricey.