Okay, this isn’t the best picture, and there are few things that need to be changed, but I’m too excited about this not to post it anyway:

To get a better picture, I would have to be home on a sunny day with my husband and no kids around to have a decent photo session.  Thus, the timer-assisted photo is all you get.  

Here’s one with flash that’s a bit brighter, but the color is truer in the above pic:

Obviously, the second from the bottom button is a bit too low and has been fixed.  Despite knitting a few gauge swatches, it’s still just a touch bigger around than I’d like so I only knitted 5 rows of the button bands to compensate  a bit.  I did knit it a bit longer in the body as I like my sweaters to hit around the top of my hips.  I love how the color turned out.  The yarn pooled a bit on the back but not much and overall the variegation is subtle.

Choosing buttons is hard–I mean, it can really change the look of a whole piece depending on what you get.  Imagine if I had gone with, say, teapot shaped buttons.  You would then describe it as “whimsical,” and I hate things that are whimsical.

I ended up going with these shell buttons that have a touch of a green shimmer to them. I think they add to the look of the whole piece.  Really, I’m pretty proud of myself–not bad for a first sweater!

Next up, for the dinosaur obsessed toddler: