Sleeve caps and shoulder joins (a novel by Jane Austen?)

Some of you have commented on my speed when it comes to this sweater - well, I've had a few days off work, and as I mostly sit still knitting there's hardly anything to tidy up except stray bits of yarn on the floor around my chair, which rather makes the place look like a hairdresser's for sheep. (Fleecedresser?) And I don't spend waste much time cooking, an activity that leads to more things to clean. Also, this pattern was easy to learn but with enough variation to make it fun to knit and the yarn is fairly thick. At times it feels as if it's knitting itself!

Something I don't enjoy when knitting sweaters is the neck band. Therefore, I've started doing it before I knit the sleeves to have it over and done with as soon as possible. Another good thing about it is that it gives me a chance to see if it is big enough and comfortable enough before I pick up stitches to knit the sleeves.

shoulder join

I like the way the front and back patterns meet at the shoulder join. This is not very difficult: you centre the pattern on both back and front and end in the middle of a repeat. What I find tricky is getting the width right - I want both comfort and whole pattern repeats. In this case it worked, so I'm happy about the shoulder joins.

To avoid excess fabric under the arms I've shaped the sleeve caps. First, I pick up stitches for the sleeve but instead of knitting in the round straight away I start knitting back and forth with short rows adding a few stitches every row. There's a photo of a sleeve cap in progress in a post I wrote some three years ago here. It requires more work (and patience) with stranded colourwork but I think it's worth it.

In the first photo you can see a side pattern I added to the design and which continues on the sleeves.

Edited to add a photo: the sun came for an unexpected visit in the afternoon and brought out the beautiful natural browns.