I tried a second swatch (with fewer rows; I didn't have as much time last night) using a size 9 needle.



At first I thought it was not going to work, but when I stretched the resulting fabric laterally (so as to get stitch gauge), it turns out I got row gauge as well. And I like this fabric better - it still stretches but it is not so loose as the previous trial.

I'm excited to start this sweater. I realized, while working on the swatch and looking at the photo, that the sweater calls for five, 5/8" buttons. I think one of the sets of the vintage Czech glass buttons I've bought from The Antique Collection will work - and this sweater is the ideal use for them. They won't be called on to do heavy-duty (I would rarely, if ever, button the sweater closed), when the sweater gets washed it will be done carefully and by hand - so the buttons' safest use is on a garment like this. (And I think, if I have the right color, they will look nice. I think I have a cream colored set and a black iridescent set, either of which should work).

So size 9" needle it is, with some careful blocking at the end to make the sweater short enough but wide enough. (I'm going to do the 42 1/2" size. That's like an inch of negative ease on me through the bust, but again - I'm rarely going to button the thing. And since it's a "girly" sweater it needs to be more fitted, and the dimensions of that size elsewhere (like the sleeves, for example) are the ones that would make it fitted. And at any rate, the fabric, even on the smaller needles, is quite stretchy.)