quick pic at the mo - better ones hopefully when I can corral someone into holding the camera.

Until I wore it into shapelessness, I had this Diesel Sweetie t-shirt. More than anything else, it was the subtlety of the reference that was appealing. Loitering around as the walking, talking equivalent of a literary pub quiz has such good baggage (cosy pub with one of those bring one / take one book shelves, pint of bitters, punny team names, competitive trivia.)

I bought the KD pattern back in 2011 but parked it for a couple of reasons. I liked the style but, while I could see how tortoises and hares resonated for Kate, Aesop’s fable didn’t really resonate for me. Also, the glories of Ravelry were quickly showing that this was a pattern that a lot people – particularly people not shaped like Kate - were struggling with.

I decided last year to make it with electric sheep and androids, bought the wool at Beshley’s in Bristol and have let it sit since. Finally mapped out planned the different pattern August this year and started. I know there are better sheep and android motifs out there (I’m not expecting anyone to actually be able to interpret this) but the jumper as it stands makes me quite happy.

If you don’t read science fiction. Do androids dream of electric sheep is a 1968 novel by Philip K Dick which was made into a little film called Bladerunner in 1982.

Modifications:
Yes I have modifications!

Shaping:
From the outset, I knew I wanted it to look as it appears on Kate in the anchor picture, rather than as laid out in the diagram. Specifically, I wanted the vikkel braids to sit below my waist (rather than on it) and therefore the stranded work would start with reductions before hitting my natural waist. I cast on for the vikkel braid during the decreases, at 3 inches from cast on. (see pic of rough sketch)

Decreases: I increased the decreases as follows. Cast on 250, 6 repeats of standard decreases, 4 repeats of decreases every other row – 40 rows total. After Vikkel braid I had 206 stitches, by the waist (at row 11 of the stranded pattern) I had 188.

Motif chart.
I kept the same width as Kate’s original charts, but increased the height of the repeat by 4. I figured I could get away with this as a) I was starting lower on the jumper and b) I’m quite long waisted, so would have had to introduce extra rows regardless. The sharp-eyed will see I have one row in the repeat that is a 3 colour repeat, the sheep just looked much better with a segue of white and black coming up to the body.
I did slip in a somewhat dodgy unicorn (see pic) to replace one sheep on the last pattern repeat. Total of five repeats.

After waist shaping, did increases every 4th row. Increased to 8 stitches ( 2 per side, f&b) over size 2.
Armholes: Once I had it up to the underarm, tried it on and eyeballed where I wanted to sit on my shoulders once it was cut. I did not want the stranded knit to extend far over my shoulders, I could see this had caused problems for other knitters of this pattern. Decided to reduce down to 6 repeats plus 4 st per side (188 total). Also measure from armhole to middle of shoulder and decided to make the steeked section 19 cm high.

Note: during blocking I did stretch these a bit to reduce the sleeves puffing at the shoulder line.

Sleeves. I’m sure if I knit more capped sleeves I’d do a better gradient. Picked up 73 stiches, plus 10 underarm, then reduced down to 75. In retrospect, could probably have topped out at 67 picked up stitches, plus 10 underarm before reducing to 75.

Casting off neckline & sleeves. Decided my big giant head would not fit in the top if I used a standard cast off. After a bit of experimentation to make the colour variation match the bottom, used: 1 row white, 1 row blue, 1 row stretchy cast off (with yarnovers) in pattern. On the sleeves took the needles down to 2mm on the cast off row to avoid flare.

Overall: Very happy with the decision to drop the vikkel braids lower. Also happy with the armhole shaping, and decisions over casting off. Don’t feel the sleeves are quite right (still a tendency to bag) but if they really bug me then not too difficult to pull off and redo without unraveling the rest of the jumper.