Fine-gauge sweaters

Potter is almost done. I have to get back to the sewing-up of it, and then knit on the collar, then attach the buttons.

I'm still thinking about the "next sweater to start." I've kind of narrowed it down to the Hampton Cardigan from New England Knits (I have some very pretty coppery-brown Louisa Harding silk-wool blend for it - that was from this summer's trip to Stitches N Stuff), or the "Classic Lines Cardigan," which is a kit from KnitPicks I bought over a year ago.

What these two have in common - besides both being cardigans - is they're made of lighter weight yarn. The Hampton cardigan is a dk weight, and the KnitPicks one is actually knit of doubled (? maybe tripled) laceweight.

But I'm coming to the conclusion that finger-gauge sweaters are more practical for me. For one thing, they breathe a bit better - which is a consideration when it may be 40 degrees when you leave the house, but 60 when you return. And they're MUCH easier to pack when traveling. And...I discovered this this week - easier to wear under coats. We've had a pretty cold snap here (though it's warming up now) and a couple days I wound up wearing my Kenobi cardigan (which was knit of doubled worsted weight!) under my coat...and I wound up like Randy in "A Christmas Story," where I felt like I could not put my arms down.

Also, finer-gauge sweaters are less bulky ON, which is a consideration when you're someone with, ahem, "huge tracts of land." And you can knit them more fitted. (And a note to myself: make future sweaters smaller. Some of my earlier sweaters, I was thinking like sizing for woven fabrics, and they came out a bit big. The Cobblestone pullover - which I wore one day this week, I put it on and said, I should make more sweaters in this size - and I know I made that a smaller, more fitted size.)