I bought this yarn on a whim at Sifu’s re-grand opening party without a project in mind. It is lovely and tweedy and sheepy -- an un-dyed 80/20 alpaca/wool blend spun in New Hampshire from alpaca in Pennsylvania.

I’d had this project in my favorites for a while, and settled on it after making a gauge swatch and searching patterns by gauge. I’m a little nervous because I got gauge with a smaller needle so my fabric might be a little denser than intended, but I think it’s turning out nicely so far. Right now, I’m just working on the easy stockinette part, and it’s going by pretty quickly. I’m eager to try out the lace pattern. I’m curious to see how it will look with the tweed.

10/3/13: I haven’t been making a ton of progress on this, since I tend to knit less in the summer. I’ve also now started another sweater, so this might not get done for a while. I did get to the lace part, and I think the pattern is showing up just fine with the tweed. I think I’ll like it a lot, when I do get around to it.

1/26/14: I finished my other sweater, so now this one has been back out of hibernation for a week! I finished the body, with six rows of the lace pattern. It’s still long enough to cover my butt. I just stared on the first side panel. I started with three lace repeats, but that seemed way to wide, so I started over with just two. I wimped out on doing two at a time; just doing one seems more portable.

2/28:14: In the home stretch! I’ve got both lace panels done just about to the bottom, but I have done the garter stitch at the bottom because I need to make sure that the panels are just the right length. I’ve also got one sleeve down and one to go.

The panels were really enjoyable to work on and went really quickly, but I guess mine are only 2/3 as wide as what was in the pattern.

I’m doing the sleeves in magic loop, which isn’t my favorite. My first one took a week; let’s see how long my second one will take. I’m making them come down just past my elbow.

3/13/14: All of the knitting is done! I wonder how long it will before until it’s blocked and seamed. :)

3/18/14: Blocked!

5/6/14: Wow, FINALLY done! I put it off for a while, but even once I started it felt like it took forever to sew on the side panels. I am really happy with the results! It turned out really long -- blocking made it grow. But I think it works. The other thing a little wonky is the seam behind the neck. Still very pleased.