yet an other project in the “knit the whole” book goal.

This one is perfect to work on when I get tired of all the cables (or cable chart reading). Love basket stitches!

Update 02/04/2013: body length done, first sleeve cast one. This is one of those project that is perfect for when I just want to pick up and knit something: no charts, not cables, yet more interesting than just straight st. st.

Update 09/19/2013: the sleeves are finally attached to the body… eeks, this yoke is gonna take a while!

Update 12/31/2013: I plan on this being the first finished project of 2014. The yoke IS taking a while (but I got side tracked by many other projects while I worked a row here and there). I’m finally to the point that one row doesn’t take forever and it actually looks like a sweater. Trying not to think how long the shawl collar will actually take!

Update 01/01/2014: okay, the next day and I’m out of stitches on the fronts, yet I’m not done with the decreases. Hmmm…. looking at the other finished versions, my raglans do look deeper (of course you can’t tell anything from this book. Dear publishers: do not hire photographers/stylists that do not knit! Pretty pictures mean nothing to us! We need to see the project not how well you photograph a cup of tea). I have no idea how I messed up, but I definitely did something wrong somewhere. I’m not overly concerned, as I slipped it on and the fit is quite nice. I think I’ll go ahead as is!

Update 01/05/2014: everything is done except the collar. Which is no small thing. The collar is huge so while I feel I’m in the final stretch I know it’s gonna take me longer than I think it will (as it always does).
Update: okay, the collar didn’t take as long as expected, but mine ended up being a much smaller shawl collar (I didn’t read the directions, I just did my traditional shawl collar, so it’s less “portrait collar” and more “traditional shawl collar”. Still love it! Only thing left to do is sew on the buttons and get some photos!

01/07/2014: Finshed! While the collar is nothing like the pattern, and somewhere I messed up the raglan shaping (my stitch was waaaay off), this turned out better than I had hoped… and I had high hopes. I actually prefer the less full collar. I did my own thing with it (didn’t even read the pattern directions!) and it came out just the way I wanted. The yarn gives the stitch pattern a great drape (it looks fitted on me… my dress form and I are not built anything alike). It’s soft. It’s warm. It fits! It’s been a while since I’ve finished a project for me that I’ve been this happy with the results! It took a while, as I did find the knitting a bit tedious at time. So it was worked in spurts. Giving it a thumbs up! (and I’m totally inspired to finish some other things for me now!)