12/30: wore it on xmas to the in-laws. i love it, they love it… can’t wait to wear it all winter. i put on xmasy buttons for the season but might switch them out in a few weeks.

12/17: yarn grew a LOT when wet--- probably an inch or two in the midsection and 2-3 in length. tried to pin to right measurements but it fits significantly different than it did before i wet it. in hindsight, i should have just steamed it, but it still fits well--just a bit less form-fitting.

12/16: finished yesterday morning and blocked it. it’s been drying for 2 days and i can’t wait to sew some buttons in and wear it next week for xmas… can’t believe i finished it in time! (especially considering how many times it was put on hold).

i thought the pattern had some clarity issues but most of them were due to layout (lack of line breaks to save space-- made it hard to tell what was going on). it’s definitely not a beginner’s project but it was a lot of fun to plan and knit

color substitution note: instead of doing a gradient from white to black, i did the yoke in dark gray and off white. i wasn’t really happy with any of the other color choices in this yarn and you can hardly see the gradient colorwork on the pattern anyway. it ended up using almost exactly one skein of each contrasting color. for the top row, i used some medium gray caron simply soft because i wanted a little variation. the heart is done in pink lavish-- i cant believe i used 100% cashmere and caron simply soft together in one sweater but i really like this shade of pink and it only used about a yard of it anyway.

10/22: sleeves done and connected to body. need to find some yarn for the yoke…… project temporarily on hold.

10/21: put the body on a holder temporarily while i did the sleeves in class. finished 1 1/2 sleeves in 2 days

10/19: almost done with the body. that was quick, considering i’ve hardly been working on it at all! although i think i’m going to pick up a new job that will keep me busy knitting from now til xmas so my new goal for this sweater is next week. otherwise, it will be put on the back burner for awhile :(

10/7: saw this in vogue yesterday… immediately ripped out the ms darcy cardi i was working on to repurpose the yarn. i really wasn’t feeling the darcy cardi-- it’s a really cute pattern but this color really needs to be something kitschy so i was so happy to see a nice colorwork sweater in the same gauge. i think the pattern paired with the wintry color of the yarn will make an adorable kitschy (/tacky?) christmas sweater (as an agnostic jew i am permitted to make fun of such things). pattern says to get 5.5 st/in on 4’s but i don’t know how thats possible… i get 5.5 on 6’s so that’s what i’m using. i’m also knitting in a garter stitch button band as opposed to picking one up later