Phildar Shell Finished

It's Done!!! And it looks wonderful. I love the way the ribbed shaping works as well as the sewn-on armbands, although more about that later. 

Matilda is modeling here, so you can get a better view of the side and arm shaping, she is far less modest about pointing cameras at her underarms.

The overall ribbing of the back holds the body nicely (of course it may also show off any asymmetricalities, but it is not as bad as a feared):

Just ignore the sun over my shoulder, you actually get a better view of that shoulder below:

The join at the arm band is not perfect, but I am not going to be that fanatic about the whole thing.  I love the fit of this sweater.  The fit around the arms did not work out as well, for me at least as I had hoped from the pattern.  The two ends of the arm bands were definitely shaped and when they were joined together at the underarm and the shoulder seam the arm band had a definite longer side, to be attached to the sweater, and a shorter side.  Unfortunately on me, it was not quite short enough on the short side and the the arm openings gaped a little lot.  Since most of the gaping was at the bottom and the back I disconnected the bands and reknit the bottom bits using short rows to make the outer edge even shorter than in the original pattern.  I really didn't measure this, I just kind of knit it on Matilda. 

The right shoulder, the one shown above came out very well.  The left actually needs more work, there is still a good bit of gaping at the lower back and upper front of that shoulder, but I was having trouble putting in even more shaping without distorting the lines of the ribbing.  This would need to be completely reknitted.  I have made a note in the pattern for future reference, but it really isn't that bad now.  I am going to see how it goes, wear it a couple of times and see if it bothers me.  My inclination at this point is that it fits pretty well and I am just fretting over details that no one else will notice.

If you take a look at the front and back photos you can see a bit of wobbling in the left armhole edge that indicates where it doesn't lie quite right.

Comments

[Bee]

Stumbled on your blog from Sewing World.Love the top.Made the long sleeve version from Phildar Family Tendances 2004.Excellent style.Glad to see another Phildar fan.NAVY