06-13-2018

Swatched with both colors.

Not going with either color.

With the Madtosh DK Twist I couldn’t get effective row gauge, darn it. It’s such a pretty color. I’m feeling a little sad about it, I really wanted to use it. :/

Loving the Prairie Spun dk tho. (I’ve used the sport weight before) Got row and stitch gauge with 4mm. Nice fabric, too. But as much as I love the color…where I know I will be doing a lot of my sweater knitting… there will not be great lighting and so much the harder to work on my sweater. Found another color I like at the Yarn Maven. So I will take the teal back (insert tear here) and get a khaki taupe-y type color that I hadn’t paid attention to when I was picking stuff out before. I love taupe, and while it’s not as exciting a color as the teal, it will probably work in my wardrobe better as well, as be better to knit in the dim lighting.

06-18-2018

While still avoiding the picots on my Sea Glass Shawl….

I knit the first 26 rows. Using the Prairie Spun DK yarn, but NOT the color yarn I’m using for my sweater. Because I haven’t picked it up yet. And NOT the needles I got gauge with, because I don’t have the lengths I need in those yet either.

I’m glad (and proud!) to report that in my test run of my neckline…I learned casting on at the beginning of a row (purlwise too!). I’m proficient on M1L and M1R. (Hopefully it sticks this time.) And I can see only ONE glaring mistake.

I also had the correct count at each check-in. Loving those check-ins!!! And it all ‘only’ took about 4 evenings. Needless to say I’m a little worried about my personal goal of a sweater in a months time. But I’m going to try my best.

06-29-2018

I have all my needles.
I have all my yarn. Plus one skien in case I really screw up.

I even made a 4th swatch, just because the color I’m using could be bigger than the color I originally swatched with in the line. Hey. It can happen right? Really I made the last swatch cuz I think the bee pattern is so cute. ;)

(I even have lettered stitch markers.)
I’m ready! :)

07-01-2018

And we’re off!

Kept my ‘trial’ neckline that I knit using one size higher needle than the gauge I will actually use. SO very surprised by the difference in size to my ‘real’ neckline in the correct gauge needed.

4:20am Woke early. Not on purpose. Grrr. I hate not sleeping. So anyway… I started to knit around 4:40? Knit for about 6 hrs on and off thru out the day. My guess by using the formula for knit speed is this is going to take about 60 hours.

10:10pm
My check-ins have all been good.
Put a lifeline in at row 26.
AND
I get to start my first bee rows tomorrow!!!!

07-04-2018

Hours tally

After testing my knitting speed using the calculations provided on the Olive Knit site, I’ve decided to keep track of my time and see if it is indeed similar, and to see what time I end out with. This should take me approximately 60 hours. Testing the knitting speed of a turtle, essentially.

July
1st 6hrs
2nd 2hrs
3rd 1 hr
4th 0 hr
5th 1hr
6th 2 hrs
7th 2hrs
8th 0
9th 2 hours at the airport :)
10th 2.5 hrs
11th 2 hrs
12th 2.5 hrs
13th 2 hrs
14th 3 hrs
15th 5 hrs with added airport delays
16th 0 hrs
17th 2 hrs
18th 1hr
19th 0
20th 1hr
21st 2 hrs
22nd 3 hrs
23rd 1 hr
24th 3 hrs
25th 0
26th 1hr
27th 4 hrs
28th 1hr
29th 4 hrs

August
21st 3hrs
22nd 1hr
23rd 2hrs
24th .5hrs
25th .5hrs

Well look at that. 63 hours. Almost right on the money for my knit speed test.

07-07-2018

Separated for the sleeves!

07-09-2018

I had a flight to the ATL Gift Show. So I got to knit for 2 hours waiting for my plane. Hopefully get to knit more after I’m settled in my room and unpacked. BOY HOWDY does this sweater start to fly after dividing for the sleeves. :D

07-14-2018

I’ve been getting a couple hours of working on my sweater most every evening. Its so pretty. I even tried it on so VERY carefully last night (so as not to loose any stitches off my needles). And its gonna fit! Woohoo! I don’t have my tape measure with me here at the ATL gift show. So if I get an appreciable amount of knitting in tonight I might run over to the local drug store and see what they have in school supplies. I might be getting close to my length. Didn’t think I’d get this far so soon!

07-15-2018

Looks like I need another 4” before the bottom ribbing. Slow and steady wins the race. I really have enjoyed working on this every day. More airport knitting this evening while waiting on my plane and then on the plane itself if there’s enough room. :D

I have well and truly missed my husband and family and work. Cannot wait to get home to DE.

Update. So far my flight is delayed 2 hrs. Shoot. On the bright side 2 more hours of knitting. Glad I kept an extra skein of yarn in my carry on. (I almost talked myself out of doing that.)

07-21-2018

I bound off my bottom ribbing. Slightly over 2”.
AND it wasn’t too tight… which is often the case with my bindoffs.
Yay me!

07-22-2018

I got a neck now. Fourth time’s the charm.
Picked up 98 stitches around the neck. 1.5” band.

Grrr. Since I started actually knitting on the ws… after picking up my stitches (on the rs)… I should have started with P2, K2… So my band starts and ends with purls on the rs. Hopefully it’s not an obvious yucky looking flaw and more just a PIA to pick up. Will see I suppose. OH BOY I will remember this when picking up my front bands!

07-23-2018

First front band finished. After seeing someone else’s suggestion, I lightly steamed my edge before starting. (Iron set on steam (wool) and a nice thick towel between it and my precious sweater.) It made all the difference in the ease of finding and picking up my stitches. Picked up 118. 1.5” band.

(So many helpful suggestions on the Olive Knits FB page!)

07-24-2018

Got the other front band done today and now I’ve got the stitches off the waste yarn for the first sleeve. Picked up a couple extra stitches after seeing videos on reducing the holes in the underarm for a total of 68. I will decrease those in the next cpl rounds.

Working the sleeves are the first time when I’ve realized how much purling there is on this sweater. A lot. But there is a nice change up with the bees rows and decreases and such. Even with all the purling I’m not feeling the dreaded ‘sleeve island’ at all.

I think I remember seeing something about knitting from the inside so there’s more knits than purls. Might investigate that. Definitely in the pattern it mentions knitting sleeves flat and sewing them. But. Ewww. Sewing knitwear is not my jam.

07-29-2018

13 bee rows after the sleeve divide for 10 1/2” and then a 3” ribbed section. My ribbed section has 48 stitches and 23 rows before binding off in pattern.

I need to add some bees. Or do I ? :/
There are spots where my bee(s) would/should have gone… like where it was time to put a bee, and they just didn’t fit on either side of my marker and still work in the pattern. So there’s some spaaaaace. Should I add the missing bees before or after blocking? I will have to think on that…

I won’t have this done in a month’s time, but I’m actually very happy with my progress and my project. I’m going to try hard as heck to get done by this coming weekend tho.
I think I can.
I think I can.
I think I can.

08-25-2018

Nope. I didn’t finish in July.

But I did finish my second sleeve today…a month later. In fact I hadn’t knit again on this at all until this week. Now to weave my ends in and block. I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself, it looks so good and fits well. Very excited to see what blocking does.

08-28-2018

It’s finished. And I’m so very excited. And happy. It fits well. It looks good. There are no obvious mistakes. ;)
I can see this getting worn quite a bit.
I’ve made a sweater.
I’m now officially ‘a knitter’. (Not just ‘Yes, I can knit.’)

Next time I wash/block this, I will stretch it a bit longer in the body. There is definitely more give there if i want it. I was just afraid it would be too long. But it won’t be.

Also, I can see making another of these for myself.

(My modeling photos were take by my youngest. He humored his good old mom and took about 20. In almost every one I have a big goofy grin. Ahh well. Just sheer joy in finishing my lovely Beekeeper I guess. Also possible heat stroke in that we have a heat index of 103 today, and I was in the front yard modeling my new wool sweater. I’m sure the neighbors thought we were crazy.)