jan. 19 – finished as of last night, took a few photos today. hopefully i can get some better ones in outdoor lighting once the weather is more agreeable.

overall, i am really happy with how this turned out, although since the pattern was improvised, there are a few things i would do differently in retrospect. mostly it seems to fit (i would make the arms a bit bigger for more ease), and i think i would have put the bronze band a bit higher up. also, the neckline was meant to fold over better than it does (as in the second photo from the bottom), so i probably should have split the raglan sooner.

i am working on turning my notes into a pattern, although it may not be terribly coherent.

i think the total cost of this project probably came to just under $120cad. no plan to sell these babies… not economical at all given that i have been straight knitting since i started (with one week off for ordering yarn).

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jan. 17 – just have the sleeves to finish!

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jan. 14 – raglan is causing disaster. i can’t tell if it’s too big or not. remind me never to do anything like this from the bottom up. ever. again.

on a better note, the buttons arrived today. and are epic.

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jan. 11 – almost ready to start the raglan. i would be done, but i’ve made a pattern change and had to rip back and rework everything from the bronze band up. currently fixing both sleeves and will then start to join everything up. exciting!

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jan. 6th – right arm is done (mostly - may need a few more rows to bring it up to the underarm). on to the next.

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jan. 4th – yarn is in. back to knitting and hoping i don’t need anymore. pretty funny to see the difference between the unused yarn and the frogged yarn - this viking sure does change with use.

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dec. 27th – basically out of yarn. have put in an order for more as this is no longer stocked by my lys. hopeful that i will resume next week!

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dec. 26th – trying to decide if i should knit in an elbow patch. this is mostly because i have tons of extra bronze and (although i definitely need to buy more blue) prefer not to buy more yarn than i actually need. i think i’ll try knitting one in and if i hate it, i’ll just rip it back. there are too many options for this. blargh.

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dec. 24th – i decided to deviate significantly from the lochaven design. this entailed ripping back the bronze band, moving it up an inch and a half, and working in the little bird stitch over the bodice. we’ll see how this works out as it may look funny with the ribbing. i’ve only done a few rows of little bird, so it’s too early to tell.

i’ve set aside the body and started working on the right sleeve. i’m a little unsure about the best way to do increases when doing ribbing like this, so i’m going with the flow. i originally cast on 44st but thought it might be a bit too slim (it fit, but i thought it looked a bit narrow). recast on with 48st - not sure i like this better, but i’m going with it for now.

i cast on with a provisional cast on in case i decide i want the sleeves to fold over, have a thumb hole (leaning towards this), or just generally be longer.

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dec. 17th – i am about halfway finished this (i think).

i’ve just entered the territory with the bronze chestband (not really a word, i suspect). i have mostly decided to do this in raglan, and upon finding some rather wonderful eagle buttons, i may do a buttoned up neck. obviously this is deviating from lochaven’s original design, but as stated previously, this jumper is really more to be something that matches both my kneesocks and my personal wearing preferences, so i’ll just go with the flow. hopefully disaster does not ensue.

like the original pattern, i did not do any waist or chest shaping. i hope i don’t regret this decision later. however, i think since it’s meant to be a sports jumper, it’s unlikely that it would have had different shaping for male/female players. straight up and down makes more sense. i think.

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dec. 7th – ugh, anytime I take pictures of this bronze yarn it just looks WRONG.

i am improvising this design from http://www.lochaveninternational.com/store_main.asp?int_c... - i’ve actually frogged most of my ravenclaw pride sweater vest to make this as it had many issues i could not live with, not to mention i’m always freezing, so a full jumper makes more sense. i will have to buy a lot more yarn, so hopefully dye lots aren’t a huge problem.

i was not able to find any quidditch jumper pattern out there that i was happy with (seems that most are based off of the philosopher’s stone design, and frankly don’t look quite right to me), so hopefully my ability to replicate from a rather small image is better than i suspect. i also have some stills from harry potter and the deathly hallows, although there don’t seem to be many good captures of the girls wearing them, so i hope the band placement works out okay (ha!). it seems in the film that the sleeves are actually rolled back, so depending on whether i have extra yarn, i like that idea. i’m also scouring patterns for how to do a doubled crewneck but have thus come up dry, so if anybody has pattern suggestions or instructions, please tell.

i’m tempted to do this as a raglan jumper as i hate seams, and as i’m not doing it authentic to the film costumes in the first place, i’m less concerned about it being dead accurate… i am not using 100% lambswool, nor the film colours (blasphemy) as i want this to match my ravenclaw pride kneesocks.

so far, i am knitting this in the round as i can’t tell if the front and back were knit separately, and this just seems easier rather than switching between k2p1, p2k1 (and the lack of seaming). the edging is k1p1 ribbing, and the body is k2p1 - as far as i can tell, that is what lochaven did, although i suspect the lambswool was a bit more dense as their ribbing seems a bit more plush. however, the count of the ribs seems to be reasonably close, so they must have used a similar yarn weight. (i hope the yarn won’t be too heavy for this jumper.)

i am currently planning to post my notes/pattern once i’m done, but this mostly depends on whether or not they are coherent, and it will likely only come in one (wee) size. i will potentially include information on how to size it up.