I don’t know about you, but I can hardly stand how cute this sweater turned out.

And I think it’ll look even cuter when it’s worn by little “rudy”.

Things I like about this sweater --
The colors I chose. LOVE LOVE LOVE
The buttons I found (after finding only 3 ALMOST like these at Joann’s, I found these online at Hancock fabrics - on sale, so I think this is the end of them.)
The birds, the birds, the birds.

Things I’m not so excited about --
my gauge and therefore the proportions of the sweater.

I did swatch. I really did. And my gauge was too loose with one needle and possibly a bit tight with the next. I went with tighter because I liked the fabric. But then my tension got EVEN tighter as I knit, and now this sweater is really too narrow and therefore too long (especially the sleeves) for how skinny this turned out. Hope it gets SOME wear.

Things I changed --
I knit the neckline edging, the button bands, and the bottom border separately, instead of all at once like the pattern directed. I thought SOME of the sweaters made this way looked as if the neckline, especially, flared out. And the miters are difficult to get to look “just so” when you’re working on this small scale. Mostly, I’m happy with this change - I could have picked up some more stitches around the neckline edge (I did 3 out of 4) but otherwise -- OK. Also, I did a sewn bind-off at the neck.