Well, here it is. Seemed like it took forever after being spoiled with the instant gratification of the Twinkle knits. But this may be the nicest thing I've made--the kind of thing where I wore it to work and people who know I'm knitter didn't assume I made it. I'm really happy with it and pretty proud of it. This was my first Phildar knit and I love the simplicity (and thus wearability) of their designs. The patterns are also extremely easy to follow. The mistakes I made were when I was rushing through something and weren't a reflection of pattern vagueness or typos. The only thing about Phildar is actually getting your hands on the magazines, which for me ended up costing a small fortune--I ordered through Knit n' Tyme in the fair land of Canadia and for 2 magazines I paid something like $50!! I've learned through the Ravelry forums that it would've been better to have ordered directly from Phildar.
I used Jo Sharp Alpaca Kid Lustre, which I have to say is gorgeous yarn. It has the right amount of sheen to make the piece look so nice in the end. And the alpaca makes it so warm and soft. The yarn gave me a slightly smaller gauge than the pattern called for, but since I wanted it to fit a little tighter than on the model I didn't do any mods. The fit came out generally the way I wanted.
The buttons are ginormous vintage glass faceted buttons I got on Etsy. I had something else in mind but I couldn't find what I wanted anywhere. My next endeavor may be button-making.
The skirt actually is another FO, of the sewing variety from a year or so ago. I love the buttons on it, which I got at Mood in NYC while I was living there. I only wish I had that place at my disposal still. It's a very simple skirt, but finally something wearable. I went through a silk phase where I made all these silk pants and shorts and fluffy shirts that are cool...but in a costumy sort of way. Actually the shorts are cool. Maybe I'll share those at some point.
