I loved this pattern ever since it came out. Despite a few challenges, I enjoyed it very much.

Planning

• CC Amethyst Heather used in swatches only.
• This pattern had no advice on where to place short rows or where center back was located, as did other patterns in the Strange Brew collection. I calculated the percentage of sleeve stitches that were put on hold (Thanks, Elizabeth Zimmerman!), etc. to locate the center back.
• Because I am short and wide, I anticipate having to re-work the sleeve decreases. It may prove tricky since I will have less decrease area due to the colorwork. (Decrease needle size in cuff colorwork or use chart N instead of O?)
• After several colorwork swatches, I got gauge with US 9 needles.

WIP Notes

• Added short row shaping to the back neck immediately after casting on.
• Chart E, row 33: M1R before rectangle and M1L after made rectangle corners look wonky. Look improved when I M1L before M1R after, so that the increases were leaning toward the rectangle. (I wish I had leaned the increases toward the cross motif in increase row 7.)
• Row gauge matters with this pattern. I worked the majority of the yoke while streaming a tense series (The Handmaid’s Tale); my stitches were tight and bottom of arm holes were too high. Ripped back and re-worked while listening to music; gauge matched swatches and fit was good.
• Tried ladder back jacquard for the first time between lower crosses.
• Thought I finished body, but waistband ribbing flipped up. Also stockinette between chest and bottom colorwork was ballooning. Measurements revealed the circumference of the lower chest colorwork was 8 inches smaller than the circumference of the abdominal stockinette. Measuring WPIs on my own revealed the gray yarn was 10 WPI and the colored yarns were 12 WPI. I swatched the gray yarn by itself (I had previously only swatched the colorwork) and got the unblocked colorwork’s gauge with US 7 needles. I ripped back to the chest colorwork and reworked the rest of the body.
• Used chart N (instead of O) for colorwork above waist and cuff ribbing. Using TECHknitting’s link below eliminated the flipping of the waist ribbing.
• Sleeves: Had difficulty. Because I am short, there is less room between upper arm and wrist colorwork sections to make all the decreases. On my 4th attempt I decreased every other round. All decreases were not completed when I started wrist colorwork. I continued the arm taper by decreasing needles sizes.

What I Would Have Done Differently

• Use woolen-spun yarn (as recommended on Ravelry pattern details page) instead of worsted-spun. It would have made the garment lighter and stiches more cohesive.

Helpful Links:

• Short Row Shaping for Back Neck, Top Down, in the Round (Suzanne Bryan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhvx8wtWkw8

• Ladder back Jacquard (Suzanne Bryan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLtuGY_M-ds

• Tuburlar BO in the round (Suzanne Bryan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBrGhv1_RBU

• Where the ribbing ends (TECH knitting): https://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/03/where-ribbing-e...

• How to pickup sleeve stitches starting midway at the underarm (The Fibre Co.): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5MaujQnqwE