Following juliayork’s Hitofude advice. Red line measurement is 53” - gauge with size 4 needles = 32 rows to 4” and 36 stitches to 7” (or 20.57 sts/inch)
Since it’s lace, I am assuming I’ll be able to block it to exact measurement.
SO!… 53x20= 1060/4= 265 sts, which puts me at an XL.
Ok, then! All ready to cast on in 8 days!

8/1- I cast on for one extra lace chart repeat to hopefully avoid the neck tightness other Hitofude-ers have mentioned. I will decrease on either side of the extra repeat (and add some beads for fun) so that I will have the correct stitch count by the time I’ve completed one full chart from end to end.

8/4: Oh man, I have already memorized the lace pattern and it’s making me really drowsy!!! It’s maybe a little TOO relaxing of a project, especially at 8 months pregnant in the middle of summer…

8/9: on ball 2- just finished ribbing. Weird weird weird: my stitch counts have been great all along, never ran into problems following the charts exactly…. I was able to pick up the exact amount of stitches I should have from my provisional cast on to join and bind off my sleeve seams… Got one sleeve bound off all lined up and nice… Stitch count still spot on… And the other sleeve ended up totally misaligned! Why??? It makes no sense at all! It’s like the Twilight Zone over here, I just can’t figure out how this makes any sense… I’m having fun, it’s in a place that doesn’t really show and I’ve got WAY too much to focus on to try to fix this, so I’m just shrugging my shoulders and moving on for once!

8/13: I ran into some bad Shalimar… in at least a dozen places it’s torn and fragile. I spoke with Lynn at TLE and learned I should have not just forged on and crossed my fingers. That makes sense! If I encounter an issue like this again, I’ll just cut the bad stuff out and rejoin my yarn. TLE and Shalimar were awesome to work with, though, and I think it will be okay. This is just a learning experience.

8/15: Rounding the final bend. Everything lined up despite the arm seam weirdness. If I make this again, I will do one or two less repeats for the arms. I’m following the pattern exactly and I think I could knit the large next time if I use superwash again since it grows and can be heavily blocked.

I spy something AMAZING! This month’s challenge required 800g of yarn and is inspired by something amazing. I picked an amazingly soft yarn in an amazingly pretty color to make a cardigan constructed in an amazing way- no wonder it’s so popular! This whole summer has been amazing :)