Cropped monster

I don't know why, but I always see my sweaters as monsters. Maybe it's because I use such heavy yarn and keep ending up with such wide sleeves. I believe the last sweater I finished I lovingly referred to as the octopus...
Anyway, this sweater I began in December and finished around April, just in time to wear for about a week before the weather started to warm up. I'm completely in love with it- the length is just what I wanted, and the monster sleeves are a lot of fun. I'm sure my mother doesn't approve, but she never likes my clothes, so it doesn't matter.

I love texture work, so I really enjoyed making this sweater. I'm looking forward to wearing it with dresses to work. I wanted a cropped sweater that I could wear with all my waist cinching dresses, without getting lost in fabric.

The pattern that I used (loosely) is the aran pullover from Vogue Knitting Fall 2013. I cast on as a size x-small, because my gauge was slightly above that the pattern called for, and then for the arm holes and sleeves knitted a size small. I kept the side slits, and shortened the body by a lot. Instead of the turtle neck I finished the neck in a simple garter stitch, since that's what the bottom edge called for in the pattern. I also added seed stitch to the insides of the larger cables, because seed stitch is my favorite and I'll take any excuse I can to use it.