My Best FO Yet

Pattern: Francis Revisited
Yarn: Rowan Summer Tweed, Puff, 9.5 balls
Needles: 6mm Harmony Circulars, a couple of lengths
Started: 27 March 2009
Finished: 20 May 2009
Modifications: Row gauge was off so I moved the shaping rows around. I added three extra increase rounds to make the cowl neck bigger to match the larger size and try and ensure that I got the same look as the original, if I did this again I'd make it bigger still. I think its common in patterns that the collar or neck is not any larger on larger sizes and can look a bit small when it's balanced against a larger size than the sample.

Very definitely my best jumper yet. It's true that there aren't many competitors in the race as I've only finished five fitted garments each of which has its issues:
there's the vest that doesn't have the most flattering necklineFlair with her insufficiently double-breasted front and irritating length sleeves,
Mum's cabled cardigan that was a pain in the creating and my two shrugs - Iris which I loved when it was finished but which rides up to sit over my boobs when I wear it (not quite the look I was after) and the KSH shrug which is very pretty but was far from my original hope for it.
I do have a fondness for all of these items, they're part of my knitting history and though I've picked on their faults here they all have their good points. Still Francis beats them all as she's the closest in feel and fit to what I originally envisaged when I started knitting and it was a fun knit too. I'm sure that even if there were many more she'd be close to the top of the pile, a definite winner.

What's that? I haven't shown you many photos of her? No, but don't I look happy up there at the top? This must have been early on in the photo extravaganza that took place in an effort to get a decent shot of this jumper. Between cats, bad posture, bad hair moments, sneery faces and unrealistic body image there isn't another shot I'm really happy with. Still I know if I were reading this I'd want to see a sample of the failed attempts so here to entertain you are a few of the best of the worst of my blog photo shoots ever:
Jumper good, tummy held in, but the concentration was too much to get a smile out too. See the cat in the top left? No? Oh don't worry, the 1TB was much more interested in photo-ing her than me:
Then there was the idea of posing with the cat:
Or maybe sitting down with her on my lap (I think I'm checking the sleeve for damage from the scrabbling claws of the escape artist):
Or perhaps the other cat, or perhaps not:
Crikey I think this one is actually okay if you don't look too closely at my hair:
And I like this one if only I wasn't sneering:Oh no wait, here's the sneery one:
What a bloody good job I like the jumper!