Working from an experimental swatch, I started this on a road trip and spent a lot less time on the design than usual. I couldn’t let all that perfectly good knitting time go to waste! I used one of my favorite fleece jackets as a starting point for the overall dimensions of a pattern. This picture is an audition of two different sleeve patterns I was considering.

12-13-12. Steeks on the body are cut: front where the zipper will go, neck, armholes, and side pockets. I’m going to block this and then let it hang on my mannequin for a few days and let gravity have its way before I measure for the zipper. Ask me how I learned this….

Knitting on the sleeves is finished. They need to be steeked and sewn: up the arm and then eventually into the armhole. I like to knit both sleeves at once. It avoids that second sock syndrome, and it also makes sure that both sleeves turn out the same way when I get “spontaneous”about following my plan for increases.

I plan to pick up around the neck and knit a short standup collar. I’ll probably use the same medium and dark neutrals that are at the bottom of the body and sleeves.

12-17-12 Collar is on, blocking is finished. It’s starting to come to life. Wondering whether I need to engineer some afterthought darts…