I started wearing this sweater out and about before I blocked or put buttons on or even wove in ends. It is that delectable and cozy.
The master color is "eggplant"- a rich, dark purple. (I'm a total purple addict.) The contrast color is "piedras"- variegated oranges, reds, yellows, pinks, purples. The first skein was darker than the rest, so you can see in the photos that the diamond colorwork is more obvious on the bottom half than the top (pattern is worked top down).
True story: I was picking out the yarn at the Webs booth at Stitches West (chaos) and was searching for 5 skeins in each color. I found 5 eggplant and 4 piedras. I was stressing about it with a stranger who was loitering around me and we were spitballing alternatives. After a few minutes, I was undeterred, so she gave up loitering and put down a skein of yarn and walked away. It was my missing 5th piedras. So, yeah, shout out to that mean old lady.
The details of this pattern are what really sold me on it. The neck, hem and cuffs are all double knit, giving them more volume and a little bell-shape. (I did the neck in the recommended size of needle, but went down three sizes for the hem and cuffs.) And the diamond pattern was easy to remember and spot mistakes.
There were a few errors in the pattern, which I've gone into more detail about on my Ravelry projects page (here). I also had 3 full skeins (1 eggplant, 2 piedras) remaining at the end, so the estimated yarn requirements are exaggerated.
My final remark is that the lack of shaping in the body proved problematic. I foresaw that it would be a problem (I have hips, the pattern's model does not), so I started increasing once the body started, but it was too little, too conservative. I only added buttons at the top and can't wrap the whole sweater around my hips. Still cozy, though.
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