Caister, Finally

The great button drought of '07 has lifted, and I finally was able to buy some buttons to finish my Caister:Unfortunately this has turned out to be one of my less-favorite knits. It doesn't look too bad in the photos but there are a ton of little things that annoy me about it. Despite my effort to lengthen the body, it is still on the short side and I'll probably always have to be pulling it down, which is so annoying. I hate to think what it would've looked like if I hadn't lengthened it! I'm hoping that this will turn out to be one of those cotton knits that ends up stretching over time.

Another annoying thing is that the prescribed method for edging the sleeves, waistband, and collar does not keep the edges from curling up. I pretty much suspected this would be the case, since it was just picking up stitches and then casting them off, but I was hoping I'd be wrong. You can see the "flip" action of the collar in this rear view:I do like the way the shoulders fit, although I must say it was rather challenging making sure that the second sleeve's stripe pattern lined up with the front in the same way the first sleeve did. I must have ripped out and re-inserted the second sleeve three or four times!

The final thing (completely my fault) was that my row gauge was a bit off, and I should have compensated by adding some extra rows onto the collar. As it came out, it is a bit small and does not have the nice floppy look of the original.Oh well, despite these annoyances, it does look pretty in close-up view. I guess every knit can be a favorite!Pattern Notes:
"Caister" from Rowan 41, Knit in Rowan 4-ply Cotton on 3.25 mm needles
I did not find any problems with the pattern, but I would recommend possibly lengthening the body (unless you're going for a very cropped look) and finding a different method of edging. I did find one other person who knit Caister, and I think hers came out much better than mine, so don't let my troubles scare you from this pattern!

We got to go see the new Harry Potter movie this weekend, and I must say I liked it quite a bit more than the last one. It still wasn't any Prisoner of Azkaban though, which is my gold standard of the series. Like many other knitters, I was totally in love with a bunch of the knitted and crocheted items, particularly the hooded sweater that Hermione wears, which appeared to be in Gryffindor colors. I was looking around online to see if anyone had a still of it (alas, no luck), but I did find a number of discussions on it. Interestingly, it seems that those of us who saw the movie at a normal theater say the sweater was made Gryffindor colors and those who saw the IMAX version say it is maroon with pink and/or white stripes! Hmmm...I wonder which is correct??