The sweater is finished!

And I couldn’t help myself – now that kiddo is so darned close to my own size, her sweaters kindasorta fit me!

Pocus and Focus like the new sweater, too.

But they fit the intended recipient better, and she was SO happy to learn that her new sweater had finished blocking that she put it on as soon as she got home from school and let me take some pictures.

Of course Mr. Groundhog has to be in the photo, too.

Pattern: heavily-modified version of Professor Meow pullover, with long sleeves and a crewneck, and embroidered rather than intarsia facial features.
Size: I knit the 40.5″ size to end up with something like a 36″ chest circumference.
Yarn: Cascade Eco+ in “Summer Sky Heather”, plus Noro Kureyon in color 95, from stash (was originally intended to be a Stripes! cardigan for her).
Needles: Size 8 Chiaogoo 40″ circulars

I absolutely love how the multicolored cat face turned out, and while I still think I could’ve done a better job of embroidering the eyes, she loves them, and that’s what matters.

Happy kid in her new favorite sweater.

For the long sleeves, I picked up stitches from the upper arms just like the pattern calls for, but instead of knitting a short bit of ribbing, I knit long-sleeves. There’s a bit of shaping in the shoulders on the body, but I wasn’t sure it would be enough, so I added a couple rounds of short rows at the top of the sleeve to give them a shallow sleeve-cap. I think if I did this again, I’d modify more heavily and give the pattern set-in sleeves, but again, she’s happy, and that’s what counts.

Happy kid, happy cat.

I’m so glad that I can create sweaters for my kid that capture the object of her most intense affection: cats. Seriously, if she’s ever prompted to create something open-ended, like in art class, it will always, always be cat-themed. (She’s made some BRILLIANT cat paintings!)

Speaking of cat-love: Focus is just too adorable not to share :)

I’m really glad that kiddo likes sweaters made from Cascade Eco Wool, because the 4sts/inch gauge makes sweaters go by pretty quickly…which is a huge boon now that she’s practically the same size as me. But the next sweater I plan to knit for her is actually a Wardie Cardigan, in a lovely purple sport-weight yarn (Good Wool, from Purl Soho), because she’s finding her sense of style and it leans towards what could best be referred to as “dapper” (she likes to wear collared shirts and ties when she dresses up for orchestra), and she loves the nice tailored, not-too-girly look of my Wardies. Wish me luck?

One last photo of me stealing my kid’s sweater :)

(Seriously, though, it won’t be too long before the things I knit for her are too BIG for me instead of being just a tiny bit too small!)