9th July 2013 I’ve started and it’s going okay. This is probably the most complicated thing I’ve ever knit (so far) and I’ve knitted a lot of pretty elaborate things. It’s not a particularly relaxing knit as you need to be reading the pattern/looking at the charts constantly and it takes quite a bit of concentration. The pattern is not intuitive at all, the repeats aren’t the sort you can easily remember after you’ve done a few. Every single row of the yoke is different. I had to frog a couple of rows as well and that was particularly painful as it involved various cable and lace rows… :-( I am REALLY looking forward to finishing the yoke and getting into the body and sleeves which appear to be quite simple…. Fingers crossed it looks AMAZING when it’s finished! LOL
I timed myself and when I reached the maximum stitches after all the increasing had been completed it takes me 21 mins to complete a pattern row and 13 mins to complete a non pattern row…. And I’m a very fast knitter… Going.To.Take.Forever.
I have also been wondering about the designer of this sweater and the process she must have gone through, it must have taken her FOREVER to design and write this pattern! I’m really impressed by her skills! :-)

I am making this sweater to wear to the annual Bendigo Wool & Sheep Show. I make a new sweater each year specifically to wear to this event… and for some reason I always seem to leave it with less than 2 weeks to go! Silly me :-)
Maybe the time constraints I have put upon myself are making this a less enjoyable knit than it possibly may have been if I had no deadline (although, to be honest, if I hadn’t already committed to knitting this sweater and already spent 3.5 days on it already and DIDN’T have a deadline I probably would have given up on it already)

12th July 2013 Arrrrrgh! I was SO excited to finally be finished with the yoke and divide for the sleeves and start the body only to discover that there is an error in the pattern! Oh no!
Well I’m assuming its an error. If I follow the pattern EXACTLY as it is written for the size 39” bust the sleeves and waist shaping don’t match up evenly with the “arrow” pattern of the yoke, as well as the waist shaping being offline (not central to the sweater as a whole, regardless of keeping it in line with the the “arrows” of the yoke pattern) Ugh!
I think I can fix it, but unfortunately this means unpicking several rows. Ugh.
I don’t know if this same issue occurs with other sizes. But I have checked, re-checked, then re-checked again and the pattern is definitely incorrect for size 39” (unless it is intentional that the sleeves and waist shaping are crooked) What a pain :-(

MORE NOTES I was able to fix the error and have the sleeves and waist shaping line up centrally and evenly on the sweater and I finished knitting the last sleeve on the way to the Wool Show :-)
I did discover (on the last sleeve, ugh!) that you can actually knit the body and sleeves “inside out” there fore it’s almost all knit stitches and WAY faster than if you knit the body and sleeve in the right way which means almost all the stitches are purl. Just a hint for anyone thinking of making this sweater. I timed myself and the sleeve I knit in the right way took 9 hours to complete, the sleeve i knit inside out took 4 hours to complete :-)

Anyway, once I finished this sweater I completely fell in love with it and seriously wore it everyday for about a month after I finished it! (Then the weather warmed up, or I would have kept wearing it!)
I wear it with jeans and boots, as well as with dresses and skirts. It works either way.
Despite the pattern being kind of painful, I have strongly considered making another one in another colour for next Winter :-)

Also, if I was to make this sweater again I would make it an inch or so longer. While I was knitting the body I was worried it was going to be too long (I’m pretty short), but once I had the sweater on I realised it really could have been a smidgen longer (and I don’t really fancy long sweaters, so it must have been REALLY short.)
So if you’re taller than 5’1” and you don’t want a crop top, consider adding a couple of inches to the length of the body :-)

Also: Get off my sweater Rosie Dog!

ETA So after reading everyone elses notes about this pattern I see that everyone encountered the same odd issue of the sleeves and waist shaping not being symmetrical. Is it an error or is it intentional? Why would it not be symmetrical, especially as it wasn’t hard to fix the symmetry issue (just shifted the dividing for the sleeves and the waist shaping by a few stitches and it was all sweet…) I’m confused, but maybe there was a reason for the asymmetrical sleeves and shaping??