Shalom!

It's been snowing like crazy here and we've gotten at least 10" in the past day or so. Soooo the BF and I took a snow day today. It's irresponsible and I'll be getting an occurrence at job #2 but it feels so right! ;-) I'm getting pretty burnt out on the 2 job thing and I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be doing it.

Anywho, I took advantage of the both of us being together in the daylight and had the BF take some FO pictures of my Shalom! Complete with Buttons!

Specs:
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool
Needles: US Size 10
Pattern: Shalom Cardigan [Ravel it!] by Meghan McFarlane
Mods: Lots...

• Different Gauge so I had to account for that. I cast on 97 sts for the neckline and I changed the increases to: 1st round of increases [kfb, k1, kfb] all the way around on the WS. 2nd round of increases [kfb, k2] all the way around on the WS. 3rd round of increades [kfb, k6] all the way around. If they didn't line up exactly so the ribbing ended on a ktbl I used a m1 at the end of the round.
• I also ended up thinking that the neck line was too big/it felt like it was sliding off my shoulders so I crocheted a chain around the neckline for some added stability.
  
• After the last tier of the yoke I knit 3 rows of garter and then 3 rows of stockinette before splitting for the sleeves. Sleeves go as follows: 42 sts on each front and 40 sts on waste yarn for the sleeves. I cast on 10 sts after putting the 40 sleeve stitches on waste yarn for the under arms.*
• I did short row shaping for the bust.**
• I added button holes on every 14th garter ridge. (I would put them closer together it I knit this again.)
• For the long sleeves I did 14 rows of twisted rib for the cuffs and then bound off knit wise to give it a ridge similar to the yoke.
• I slipped the stitches on the garter button band as follows: slip the last st of the row p wise with yarn in front. Knit this stitch on the next row.
  

Thoughts: Lovely pattern, ingenious really. I would definitely recommend it!

Things I would do differently if I knit it again:
1) I would cast on fewer stitches, which would mean I would need more increases so for the 3rd tier I would probably do [kfb, k5] all the way around.
2) Knit 2 more rows of garter stitch at the neckline (I only did 6 before the 1st increase)
3) For the ribbing on the sleeves I would purl one round, knit one round before the ribbing and then maybe knit one round, purl one round, and bind off to make it match the yoke a more.
4) Make the button bands maybe 1 stitch bigger so the button holes would have 3 stitches to the end of the row instead of 2.

*When I went to knit the sleeves I picked up a total of 14 stitches for the underarms. 2 before the 10 cast on stitches and 2 after.
**For the Short row shaping I did the same shaping on both of the fronts:
1) Knit 40 sts, wrap and turn
2) All even rows purl to last 6 sts, knit 5 sts, bring yarn to the front, slip last st
3) Knit 38 sts, wrap and turn
5) Knit 36 sts, wrap and turn
7) Knit to button band, picking up wrapped stitches

For the left front you have to wrap on the purl side. You pick up these wraps and then ptbl to get rid of the holes.