Cria Semi-Finished ~.~

Good news and bad news on finishing Cria.  Good news, I finally got around to sewing on the buttons but what with the weight I had been losing as of late and the original measurements being centered around a much larger me....well, the cardigan is a size too big as one can tell from the picture.  That's not just the yarn being stretchy, a lot of it's the amount of extra fabric when I first tried it on and I'm a good 10-12lbs smaller. The bust sags off me rather than remains snug up on top  The sleeve holes were the worst because I remember trying them on as I knit them and feeling comfortably snug only to find them HUGE on me now.  I'm trying to as a last-ditch resort to amend this rather than try to felt it smaller or gift it to someone else given I spent since January to knit it.   Don't get me wrong, I love that I lost weight because I can fit into my originally more snug tops and Hollister hoodies better.  A lot better!  I'm just THIS close to being able to wear my Calvin Kline military jacket again that I got on clearance at an outlet mall.  Stupid arms being stupid.

I had to  make some adjustments on my Cria but I THINK based on the fabric notes by folks on this wool that MAAAAYBE I can stretch it vertically by hanging it over a chair.  It'll mean though the collar will be much lower than anticipated as you can tell by the second picture below when I tried tugging the cardigan down back and front to see if that made things better.  Also...I've decided to only keep three top buttons and sew up the rest of the button holes for a more flattering cardigan line because the sweater's decrease line would end up being unflattering after I stretch it length-wise.  It's not too bad and the top stops folding in on itself when I stretch it out.  Yeah, the top of the cardigan had a tendency of folding in backwards because there wasn't much on top to hold it up.

It's still a flattering cardigan and I LOVE the shade of yellow but the size will take some work stretching vertically even with having spot-on gauge. I had to tug and pull it down a bit to see what it would be if I did the stretch.  Originally pre-stretch, this cardigan was just at my hips when I measured and knit it.  Stretched with the fabric and it goes past my butt.  My other option is to try and lightly felt it down a size and in the process maybe make the fabric less likely to stretch further over time.  

Reminder to self...I must get my hair cut.  Also....counting down the days until my package of clearanced goodies pop in the mail from Sephora!