09-28-2020

Got the sweater started. My gauge swatch on #8 needles was pretty close (17 stitches rather than 18, row count OK). So, because Jeremiah wants his sweater just a little loose and has 35” chest measurement, and since this sweater has a crazy 10” positive ease, I’m going to make the size S for him which should have 44.5” chest. And I am adding 3x3 cables with repeats on every 8th row, down the sides of the body and the outside of the arms, which should draw it in a little bit more. Keeping fingers crossed!

10-02-2020

Got to the point of separating for the arms/body and was concerned that the arm opening might be too small. So knit the additional 4 rows with increases - got the length OK, but ended up with way too many stitches around the body. So spent the evening tinking back 4 rows through increases and cables. Even so, the body is going to have a lot more positive ease than I’d hoped for. I might eliminate a couple stitches at the underarms’ CO count and could also do a few decreases in first few rows of the body itself.
Need to set this aside for a couple days…

10-13-2020

Body almost done. Very pleased with the color changes at the end of the side seam cables and start of 1x1 rubbing. Just have two sleeves and hood to go!
LATER THAT EVENING: Small set back. After about a dozen rows, decided the ribbing was too puffy on the knit stitches. So tinked back to the red and started ribbing over with one row knit around, then rest of ribbing done with all twisted knit stitches.

11-02-2020

Body and sleeves all done!
Since I did an 8 stitch wide cable pattern (p1, cable 6, p1) up both sides of the body instead of the single purl side seam, I skipped that construction part in the pattern about mattress stitching and encasing the purl stitches. Altho that sounds like an excellent way to create the stabilized side seams!
Did that same cable pattern up the outside of both sleeves - so will have to do some fudging to figure out how to tackle the hood set up as my stitch counts may be off.

For the ribbing and accent color at bottom of body and both sleeves, I did the final three rows before starting ribbing in plain stockinette, knitting two rows red, one row light grey. Then changed to #7 needles and did 2-1/2” light grey k1xp1 ribbing with knit stitches knit thru the back loop to give a really firm ribbed look.

No front pocket (this is a custom requested modification per the person getting this sweater).

11-14-2020

FINISHED !!!!
Made a few modifications to the hood. Added about 1” of twisted ribbing at the neck before getting into knitting the hood. And knit extra height into the hood to allow it to fit over a cyclist helmet (as requested), 30” shoulder to shoulder over top of head. Used 1/8 inch wide “Marine Grade Bungee Cord” and toggles instead of the knitted i-cord.