Finito!

tis done...well, 99.9% done anyway!

And it fits - sorry about the dreadfully dark photograph - I was having issues (to say the least) and was incredibly eager to post all about it as a Finished Object.

Anyhow, the details:

Pattern: Kepler by Emily over at Fathom Harvill

Yarn: Berroco Uxbridge Tweed in Southbury Green (discontinued - hooray, a stash buster!) - incidentally, it took about 10.5 balls of yarn (more than I had anticipated)

Size: Large

Needles: US9 with finishing touches using US7

Useful Skills/Techniques: Cabling without a cable needle (highly recommended), Set in Sleeves (proceed with caution), kitchner stitch (extra tricksy on cable bands) and applied i-cord (still needs work, for me anyway!)

Comments:
The pattern was well written, and easy to follow. Instead of knitting all the pieces separately and having a small mess of seams to finish at the end, I knit a good portion of the pieces in the round....I began with the cable bands, all at the same time, Kitchnered em together (and while it was a mite tricky, they came out fantastic and nearly invisible). I proceeded to pick up the stitches for both sleeves and knit em together in the round using one long circular needle (until the sleeve cap, of course). I Started with the sleeves and knit em together to reduce the probability of getting hung on sleeve island. I did the body in the round as well, splitting at the bottom of the armscye, and the knitting flew by.

Seaming the arms to the body (using lots and lots of pins, joining the pieces with a slip stitch crochet seam) and finishing with the applied i-cord (see below for closeup, was very slow going on my part) in one evening, the sweater is complete and wearable, though it might benefit from a gentle blocking - mostly because I don't think the shaping at the waist is very defined as it is - then again, that might be my own fault for knitting it in the round and not having side seams to help give the sweater some form on the sides.

While I am fairly pleased, I would prefer to have had more defined shaping on the finished object (and it looked like it did while I was knitting it - but again, the sweater, as is, is currently unblocked) and I think I might prefer full length sleeves over the mid forearm capri-length ones - then again, that cable band is quite bulky and may well have driven me nuts if it was at my wrist. The Uxbridge Tweed appears to wear alright, though the cables aren't as clearly defined as I had hoped - I suspect this is due to the tweediness of the yarn.