06-30-2019

Last November I started my first knitted sweater. I was going to make a size 50 because that’s what size I was. Since then I embarked on a personal journey to fight a battle against head & neck cancer, specifically in my tongue. After surgery, chemo and radiation treatments, I have lost 42 lbs, and I will likely lose a little bit more. Now I’m making a size 40.

Just for the record, I look and feel fantastic. I have some battle scars on my chin and neck, as well as my arm and leg from reconstructive surgery, so I’ve named myself Battle Angel after the movie I saw during my fight called Alita: Battle Angel. I loved the movie and so I felt compelled to adopt that title for myself. So I did. Pretentious? Perhaps, but when I think of all I’ve been through, I’d say perhaps not. Battle Angel, indeed!!!

At any rate, as far as I know I’m cancer free. I go for a PET scan in August to make sure we obliterated it. Today I’m ready to tackle this first knitted sweater, once again.

07-06-2019

I made quite a bit of progress this week. I’ve completed the waist shaping decreases and working on the straight away segment. I love working on this project. I made one error, I missed a twist, but it’s such a small error that most people won’t even notice it. I’ll just call it a birthmark and leave it be.

07-11-2019

Added 2nd skein today.

07-13-2019

I made good progress this week. Almost made it to the neckline ribbing. I’ll finish the front next week and maybe get going on the back.

07-20-2019

I was really hoping to finish the front today, but it’s after 9 and I’m getting tired. I’m so pleased with my work!

07-21-2019

Added the 3rd skein today. I’m still plugging away on the front, but I’m thinking I’ll finish it at knit night tomorrow.

07-27-2019

Front is finished. The back has been cast on.

08-01-2019

Added the 4th skein today. Can’t get enough of this sweater. It’s all I want to work on.

08-03-2019

Made terrific progress on the back this week. I started the week with only the cast on row.

08-11-2019

Lost a little momentum last week. I didn’t get very far, but some progress is better than no progress.

08-17-2019

Today I added the 5th skein. Pretty sure I’ll finish the back in the week ahead. I’ll need to block the front and back panels and seam them together. After that I can finish the sleeves. I may be done by the end of August! I hope, I hope!

08-26-2019

I finished seaming! It’s not exactly invisible, but it’s good enough for me. Now to finish the sleeves…

08-27-2019

First time using DPNs. Challenging!

09-02-2019

I finished my sweater last night and wove in the ends on the sleeves on the way to my folks house this morning. I have thoroughly enjoyed working this sweater. I’m very proud of my work. You can see that I need practice on my seaming, but I think it looks ok for a first timer.