winnie cooper

At long last the Winnie Cooper as promised. It was actually finished over a week ago but with all the excitement of coming home and getting settled it was tucked away for winter wear. Today the sun is not blazing and I found (to my surprise) that I had a willing model to help me out.

Elizabeth is not a fan of photographs but was quite proud to display her new sweater (it’s enough to make a mama’s heart swell).

She loves it and it that makes me so happy.

The pattern is the Wonder Years Sweater, knit in size 8 – 10, using Cascade 220 for the main body.

I hummed and hawed about which size to knit but I am after all my mother’s daughter and decided to knit a size larger than I figured she’d need. Then I added to the body so it would be a comfortable length and then added a little more to the sleeves because I am forever burdened with sleeves that are too short.

I may have overshot it a little – note the rolled sleeves.

Elizabeth says it will be perfect for winter and has no complaints that she’ll be wearing it for the next half decade…we’ll see what she says when she’s 13.

The pattern was great. I loved working with it and found it straightforward and easy. My only complaint would be that the arms are wider than I’d like so I would probably add more decreases earlier on when I knit from the pattern again (which I will). My only frustration was picking up an equal amount of stitches on the button band….the same frustration I had last night working on Yellow Girl.

I also have to give credit where credit is due – although blocking seems like rather a dull task it sure brought the best out of this sweater. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve blocked my knitting but I may have to change my ways.

And the simple fact that this beautiful girl loves every bit of it from baggy sleeves to antiqued wooden buttons is just perfect.