Remember this?

I spent much of the weekend finishing up my longest-standing UFO: the Urban Aran. The poor thing has been sitting forlornly in pieces since March. At last, it is complete.

Pattern: Urban Aran, from the Patons booklet "Street Smart"
Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky, "Spiced Wine"
Needles: size 8 (5.00 mm)
Modifications: Like nearly everyone else who makes this pattern, I cardiganized it. I also added a row of crochet slip stitch along each edge of the front opening to make the edges more substantial.

Unfortunately, it's also too big. Too bloody big. Gauge is such a fickle mistress. I'm not quite sure what happened. I did a gauge swatch. I even washed and blocked the swatch. Everything was good. Originally I started knitting the smallest size, but then I panicked when it seemed too small. Intending to wear this sweater as a jacket, I thought it would be no big deal to go up one size. Lesson learned. Oh well, it isn't unwearable, and this is my first adult sized sweater, after all. I couldn't expect perfection. (However, I did wish for perfection.)

It isn't all bad. My finishing was pretty good, and I'm particularly happy with the zipper installation. It wasn't nearly as painful a process as I was expecting. I just basted the front opening closed, pinned the zipper in place, and then hand sewed along the edge of the zipper tape. Then I ran another line of stitching closer to the zipper teeth on each side.

That's one project done, but knitting progress elsewhere seems to be eluding me. The Chevron Scarf is only half finished. I only seem to work on it at knit night. I've also started some new socks, but they aren't interesting enough yet for photos.

Next week I'll be in Salt Lake visiting family, so I don't know if I'll be able to make any blogging happen. (There will certainly be lots of knitting, though.) Maybe I'll be able to sneak in one more post before I leave. In the meantime, I'll try to become more interesting.