I almost made it to my deadline - I wanted Asrai finished by the end of May. It could have happened. I had all the pieces knitted and ready for seaming early this week. Then I - again - measured the sleeves -pinned them to the body and tryed on. The sleeves were too short. No matter how I looked at it. Too short. So I had to rip both sleeves'  tops, add another 2-3 cm and shape the tops again. I seem to have aquired this fear about knitting too long sleeves, so I end up knitting them too short, did it on my last sweater, too. Anyhow, here she is done, done, done!:



I didn't do the hood, but picked up the stitches around the neckline as for the hood and knit a 2x2 rib collar, straight up:

Asrai was really a fun and easy knit - although the pattern looks a bit frightening, covering 4 pages. But it's so accurate - the instructions are very clear and detailed - and following them closely I had no problems - everything happened just the way it was supposed to! - except for the sleeves - but that was my own fault - my own fear of making them to long. The sweater is so comfortable to wear directly to the skin - being cotton/rayon. And it's actually quite warm, too - which is ok because summer has really not hit our country yet - hope it will, soon! 

Speaking of summer, my husband spotted this:

and said, laughing: What's this? The beginning of a bikini?? No it's not! It's the beginning of my daughters shawl, the one made from the yarn we dyed. She knit a few stitches herself, but I also helped her a bit. She got quite impatient trying to do the increases. So I guess this one is going to be a cooperation!