Aptly Named

Do you remember the Sesame Street bit with the little green tree frog? The one where Joe Raposo sings, "It's a long hard climb, but I'm gonna git there. It's a long hard climb, but I'm gonna git there. It's a long hard climb, but I'm gonna git the-ere. I'm climbing to the morning sun"? That's what these last three/four days have been like. I have been one with the struggling amphibian.

But I got there. Behold, the Perfect Sweater. My first sweater. My first set-in sleeves. My first go at weaving/mattress stitch. My first three dimensional garment. My first short-rows. Honestly, can you stand it? Do you realize that 1 year ago I wasn't even knitting? I think I can now officially upgrade myself from knitting groupie past knitting wannabe to knitter. Go directly to Go. Collect $200.00.

For the finicky, there's not a loose end in sight on the wrong side. What's not woven in is all down there on the floor.

While I'd like to continue singing my own praises (damn, I'm proud of myself), I need to introduce my two new best friends. Meet Margaret and Nancie.

While they weren't able to prevent all assembly disasters, those they couldn't prevent, they were able to correct. Like the fact that I only picked up the bound-off stitches for the neckband, resulting in the holey-est join in the History of Knitting. I would have put my head on the table and wept, except by then I was being so determinedly stiff-necked that my head couldn't go down that far. Or the complete blank with which, having accomplished seaming rows to stitches and stitches to stitches, I met rows to rows. I swear I spent 15 minutes looking back and forth from my hands to the knitting to the books to my hands, to - well, you get the idea. How did I ever think I might be spending too much money on knitting books?

Okay, okay, okay. Details.

Yarn: Cascade 220 The Heathers, color 9449, Midnight Heather. The pattern recommends 7 skeins, I bought 8. I used 6. Of course I've lost the receipt.
Needles: Addi Turbos, US-7's/4.5 mm for the seed stitch, US-8's/5mm for the rest. (I got gauge!)
Pattern: Mason-Dixon Perfect Sweater (Dear Ann and Kay, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!)

Maybe I should have practiced on a simpler sweater first - dropped shoulders, no shaping - but I have to say, I think it's perfect. I love it. I wonder if I could knit it in the round?