I've finished the polo shirt I've been working on (well, off and on) since last summer.  I can see myself wearing it a lot - the yarn, Classic Elite Premiere, is a buttery soft cotton/tencel blend, and the shirt is so cozy - but the collar snazzes it up.  But really, when I put it on, my favorite thing is I just feel sooo comfortable.  Bring on fall!

The pattern was written by the lovely and talented Beth Abaravitch for the book Greetings from Knit Cafe.  I knit the Medium size (38") and ended up with about 1" ease at the bust.  There is a little bit of waist shaping in the pattern - not enough that the shirt is clingy... just a little nip at the waist.  The yarn drapes well (I would knit with it again in a heartbeat) and was very easy to work with.  No splitting, easy to sew, pretty colors.  And did I mention that it is ridiculously, deliciously soft yet?  Because it is very, very soft.

Modifications: quite a few, all made to streamline finishing. Because I wanted to knit the polo in the round up to the arm shaping, I started by knitting the hems, working the underside together with the cast-on row right away instead of leaving them to sew down at the end.  I then joined everything on a circular needle and knit the sweater in the round to the arm shaping.  I added an extra inch before beginning the waist shaping (really glad I did - I'm happy with the length, and I'm tall and usually find clothes too short).  When I got to the collar placket, I decided to adapt the pattern to knit the plackets together with the fronts, rather than sewing them on later.  And any exposed sides (hems, plackets) got slipped stitches at the beginning of each row.  Written out, it sounds like more modifications than it felt like while I was knitting... probably because they were all motivated by my desire to save time and effort while finishing (or, you know, motivated by laziness... however you want to put it).  I'm happy with all the little tweaks - once the knitting was done, this was a cinch to finish off.

There is some errata for this pattern up at the Knit Cafe website - but it's worth pointing out that I never looked at it, and I didn't encounter any issues I couldn't figure out quickly on my own (and any questions I had were all related to my modifications).  I really enjoyed this knit - just a good design (thanks Beth!), lovely yarn, and a nice finished shirt that I know I will wear.