The Making of the Beau

The "Beau" is one of many patterns from Rowan's Vintage Knits - I think what drew me to the sweater was the simple but aesthetically pleasing construction plus the hilarious poses of the model wearing the sweater in the book (see center), as it was quite obvious that he was trying very hard to look rugged and sexy~ When the weather gets slightly less freezing, the plan is to reenact some of the poses, so it should be a good time! This is my first experience knitting a man's sweater, and for someone who is used to making XS-S (30"-33") sweaters for myself, making a 42" sweater was quite daunting and at times monotonously boring~ As I was knitting it, I kept thinking that I was making it too big, and I ruined the element of surprise by having my gift recipient try on the sweater during its various stages of being. I didn't dare make any alterations to the pattern (although I have no problems making changes on something I would wear), so I pretty much followed the pattern as written, the only exception being that I knitted the body in the round up until the start of the sleeves, and I knitted the sleeves in the round up until they called for shoulder shaping. Therefore, the only sewing I had to do were the sleeves and the shoulder, which wasn't so bad. I used 11.5 balls of the charcoal heather with my usual go-to yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes. Since I am a very loose knitter, my sweater stretched considerably during the blocking process, and I had to do some quick work to shorten the sleeves because they stretched out quite a bit. Other than that, I was happy with my first man-sweater - although I did lose interest in finishing it around mid-November, I am glad I stuck it out and finished it in time for the holidays. Now I can focus my attention on smaller and more immediately gratifying projects!