Yarnapalooza Winner #31 . . . finished contest, finished sweater

I'm not a big fan of the word closure, but that's what we've got going here today.

The sweater is finished! Completely, utterly, totally finished and I think I'm very happy with it.

Take a close look at the photo of the magazine page. See how strangely the sweater was photographed: one sleeve folded inward, one sleeve a tiny bit bunched? Well, I know the reason now: the pattern turns the sleeves into balloons with room enough for Popeye's post-spinach musculature. Still, it all somehow worked when I pieced it together.

Details: Creative Knitting Magazine, November 2004. (FYI: Creative Knitting didn't keep either a pattern archive or a cache of back issues. I find that very strange. How can you think so little of your magazine, the work that went into it, that you don't make an attempt to preserve the designs, etc.? I'm still mulling that one over.) (They have some old patterns available on a free website and others available for a nominal fee, but not all of them. Again, in this age of easy digital storage I just don't get it and probably still wouldn't get it even if they had to rent a warehouse to store the goods.)

Stylecraft Wondersoft Baby DK yarn in Seesaw for body of sweater

Stylecraft Wondersoft Baby DK yarn in Jack Horner for edging

Knit Picks Options, #4US and #5US

Begun around July 4th, finished July 30th.

And now, with great fanfare, I give you our 31st and final Yarnapalooza winner: Charissa from Pittsburgh! Congratulations to Charissa and to all of our winners with our gratitude for helping to make our first year so much fun!

Stick with us. Lots more fun in the future, including Sock Yarnapalooza in October . . .