Gauge swatch
Goal: 16.5 sts & 26 rows = 4”; 4.1 sts & 6.5 rows per inch

Such drama with the gauge swatch(es). Ultimately, nothing matches spot on and I like the US8 fabric better (I think it will help for decreasing likely stretch since the yarn is alpaca) and my row gauge is closer with that. So I’m going to do the 44.25” with US8 which should get me the size of the 42.5” if I have mathed correctly. I will also likely make it a bit shorter anyway (since I am short) but this way I will have to skip fewer rows than with the larger row gauge. I will wait until later to figure my brioche gauge.

I love how this yarn knits up. The fabric it makes is so lovely and lush looking.

Wrote out the neck & raglan increase section in a little chart. OMG, so helpful. It’s also going fairly fast.

I am skipping the extra plain knit body stitches before splitting for the arms due to the difference in gauge and my (lack of) height. Post-blocking it should be only about half an inch shorter than the pattern.

Knit 8” instead of 9 after separation.
Knit slightly less than 5” (but not by much) and used a Kitchener bind off as I’m not so fond of the looks of JSSBO.

Had a bit of a delay working on this as I tried to do some Christmas socks and figure out how to do the sleeves. I find I don’t wear three quarter length sleeves so much - it’s a PITA to put a coat over them in lighter weight tops and leaves my forearms cold in heavier ones. So the decision was to either do much longer brioche or do some st st before switching to brioche. After looking at what others have done, both look nice but there’s something a bit more interesting about the super long cuff so I’m gonna go that way.

Did one more decrease repeat section which put the sleeve at full length. Kitchener bind off.

Blocking to get it all set up for the collar. As soon as it dries.

Picking up stitches for the collar, I did things fairly similar to the pattern (my tighter gauge balanced out my shorter length). I did:
16 sts on the brioche him
72 sts hem to marker
40 sts marker to raglan seam
11 sts across arm
33 sts across neck
And then back down the other side. I’ve knit the short rows and an inch on the collar and it seems to be working out well. Fingers crossed for no sagging when it is done!

Sewed and blocked the collar and now waiting for it to dry. Sweater seems great! Maybe not as oversized as I imagined but the I’ve also gained a fair amount of weight in the three months it took to make it. I think the yarn is going to fuzz horribly but it’s so comfy and warm, I’m gonna enjoy it anyway!

4 balls and some change left.

The sweater is super cuddly and I adore it. It might have benefited from a tighter increase to give the shoulders a bit of structure since it is so heavy, but it works well and I love it.