Gilmore Sweater - The Beta Version

This is the sweater that started it all. I just fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. Both Lane and Rory wear it in different episodes of Gilmore Girls; they have some awesome knitwear on that show! I love everything about this sweater. I love the colours, the fit, the fact that a classic yoked sweater can look so current, and the way her matching tee peeks out from the cuffs and waist.

So of course I had to make one for myself. First I tried to make my own graph of the design, but that soon proved to be a bigger challenge than I was ready to take on from a small pic frozen from the dvd. So then I started looking through Mom's patterns and came up with this one from Beehive, which I figured was pretty close. (doesn't the model look like Monica from "Friends"?)

Then being the cheap bastard that I am I proceeded to make it out of Bernat Super Value acrylic yarn. I left off the turtleneck and did it up as a crewneck. I'm not sure what size needles I used, probably the 6mm called for in the pattern instead of the 5mm called for on the yarn label. Lessons learned: buy nice wool to make nice projects, and use an appropriate gauge. You'll kick yourself everytime you wear a sweater you worked so hard on when it looks cheap because of the yarn. (in fairness I fell in love with the colour of the yarn and paid not attention whatsoever to what it was made of)

So here we go with the Beta version. I bought some nice Peruvian Highland Wool from Elann, and picked colours that will go nicely with three long sleeved t-shirts I like to wear to work so they can peek out from the cuffs and waistband. I swatched, and as usual my swatch was off, so after knitting about 8 inches of sweater it was going to be a little on the big side and I frogged the whole thing and am starting over. I really don't mind frogging; I'd much rather make it right than carry on just because I don't want to undo what's been done and end up with something I don't want to wear. (Another lesson learned!) I'm using 5mm needles (.5mm over what's called for on the label) and I'm currently about an inch into it. Wish me luck!