I am da Bomb

Arrow gets in on the shoot,
originally uploaded by hjdong.

Presenting to you . . . a knitting post. Wait, all my non-knitting readers, stick with me anyway. This is a moment of triumph. My first real knitting done for myself. That's right, there it is, in all it's glory, the Bombshell.

My sister gave me the extremely nice yarn last year for Christmas (last year as in 2006 not 2007) and I vowed to cast on in July, which I did. Then, I finished Jamie's sweater, because I couldn't take it camping with me. Then, there was all that Christmas knitting to be done.

But, it finished up quickly and nicely post Christmas.

It was a great learning sweater. My first sweater (for Darren) was done flat, on teeny tiny needles, and did I mention, flat. That means loads of seaming. Vowing not to make that mistake again, Jamie's sweater was made in the round, bottom up, and it's a great utilitarian sweater. He loves it. This was top down, and I loved making it.

I made some slight modifications. I added short rows for the breasts (and lots of them), I made the waist slightly larger (it came in 9" at the waist originally, which is a lot), and I made it slightly longer, because no one really wants to see any skin.

Now, when I look at a pattern for a sweater, I feel like I can change things to make it more suited for me (although not every sweater is made for every body type).

The yarn is so soft, it is glorious to wear.

I have already started gauge swatches for another sweater, but an having issues. This is a question solely for the knitters out there. I am swatching up SWTC Bamboo. I should have (according to the pattern) 4.5 st. to the in. I have 7. I know, crazy. From what i have read, it has serious stretching out issues. People say to knit it tight. If I stretch my swatch out, my gauge is fine. Who stretched a swatch out? How to follow this advice? Go somewhere in the middle? If I knit at 4.5 stitches to the in. I'm going to have a holey sweater. And, this is the yarn recommended for the pattern. Any thoughts appreciated.