This yarn is wonderful! I kind of want to live in it.

Named for the The Cure song (and 311 and Adele’s covers). I still haven’t decided which version is my favorite, but I’m leaning towards Adele’s.

“Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again.”

Just started the left front and am in the middle of the pocket. I keep thinking ahead to the collar. I don’t want it as big, so I might not do any shaping at all. Or not much, maybe. It’ll save me some yarn, too, I hope. Still not sure if I have enough. As soon as I’m done with the left front, I think I should know for sure. Ish.

I did half as many increases on the shawl collar shaping as called for. I increased on rows 1 and 9 of the shaping pattern (both as knit increases the first time) and alternated the 3 repeats in this way: purl increases, knit increases, purl increases. This gave me 8 less stitches than the pattern says I should have, so I adjusted the short-row section by subtracting 8 stitches from the total stitch-count and working as written (I worked 33 sts before the first w&t instead of 41). I thought I was going to run out of yarn before I finished, but I have enough left to seam the sweater together, at least!

The left front weighs 3.92 oz. That means I will have 2.89 oz each for the sleeves. That doesn’t sound like enough! :S I will have sleeves for another sweater done before I get to these, though, so I will weigh them.

Possible sleeve solutions:
a) 2” cuff, don’t do all the increases (my arm is 11” around and 12” would be big enough to layer).
b) plain reverse stockinette sleeves with width adjusted as above.
c) (worst case senario) 3/4 sleeves.

Some help and maths tell me I should only need about 2.65-2.7 oz for each sleeve, so I should be okay. Keep your fingers crossed!

Let me give you the morals of this story before the ending: don’t put big projects down for very long; if something doesn’t seem right, don’t power through, figure it out; don’t put down big projects you are trying to modify even in the slightest unless you can read your knitting very, very well.

Now let me tell you why: I did the pocket inside out on the right side the last time I picked this project up (after another long break). I redid it and switched to larger needles. Got through the whole chart wondering why the pattern looked so open. I was using 8s instead of 7s. Thank God I left myself excellent notes here and I can see where I did decreases really easily or I’d be totally lost. :P I will finish this before the end of the year!

Another something that didn’t seem right, but I didn’t investigate months ago when I ought have: I didn’t cast on a selvage stitch on the single-cable edge of the left front. O.O I have no idea how I’m going to sew the collar to it. Crochet an edge? Pick up stitches and knit a row? Sometimes I wish I weren’t so dumb.

As much as I hate that I do, I have one criticism of the pattern. I find myself constantly flipping between the pattern directions (of which there are A LOT, though they are very clear and helpful), the chart, and the Special Techniques section, which is really hard to do when I have to keep track of where I am on two of those pages. If I hadn’t stapled them together, it might not be so hard, but then I’d have lost the pages long before now. :/

I have ~422 yards left for the sleeves. I am going to divide the yarn into two mostly equal cakes and see how far I get. I don’t think I will do all the increases. A more fitted sleeve will be fine. Cross your fingers that I have enough yarn!

I’m getting an ulcer worrying about this sleeve! Three more Chart A repeats to the underarm! Mods: 56 sts worked in the round (no need for 2 selvedge sts), 3” cuff, only working every other increase (6 total), 19” long, cap shaping: BO 2 sts at the beg. of every row 4x, BO 1 st @ beg. of every row 16x (35 sts remain), BO all sts.

One sleeve done! With yarn to spare! Yay! I’m blocking it now so I can be especially sure it will fit properly before I start the second sleeve. A little tight pre-blocking.

I LOVE this sweater!!! The sleeves could be a touch bigger, but If I blocked them properly with pins, I bet they’d shape up. Since I wear it with short-sleeved shirts mostly, it’s not a big deal. The pockets are my favorite!