10/20 - You know how in high school, when people didn’t want to cop to not having a girlfriend or ever having kissed someone they would come up with a girlfriend who lived in Canada? Jen has been my KAL partner for so long, but now she’s in Kansas…so when I tell people I’m doing a KAL but it’s with someone that I never see, they give me that kind of look, like maybe this “friend” doesn’t really exist…which she TOTALLY does!

Annnnnyway, back to the important things. I actually did the test swatches to see if it would work…although I still need to soak the pattern stitch swatch and see how big it is. I’m excited for a neutral cardigan - I need more cardigans - to pull over outfits for work. We’ll see how fast this one works up!

As usual, I’m breaking with the pattern instructions - I just cannot see the point of knitting a sweater in separate pieces if there’s no need, and having read through the pattern and studied the stitch and the decreases, I cannot see the point. I’m doing the fronts and back all in one piece because if there’s one thing I hate, it’s seaming.

10/26 - Well, as usual when I break with the directions in a pattern, I made a small mistake. The front left and front right pieces have that extra stitch next to the ktbl stitch, which I presumed was for seaming, so I just left it out, ending the collar side with the two purl stitches. When I hit the decreases a few days later and figured out where the decreases where supposed to happen and started counting over, I realized I was off by 2 stitches on either end. Sigh I can see now that the extra knit stitch is to make the picked up stitches lay flat. I really wish the pattern had been more clear about that, the written directions on those charted pages in the box made it sound like it was just the regular motif with a stitch for seaming - the “remainder stitch”, as it’s called. The directions say, “Chart depicts one repeat of Lace Rib motif, plus seam sts.” I really thought that’s what the knit stitch was for, the seam stitch! I remember being confused even when I was first casting on about which side of the chart represented which side of the fronts, mostly because I was having trouble visualizing. I should have maybe sketched it out to be sure. What I wound up doing was casting two extra stitches onto either side of the bottom and knitting my way up, attaching those two stitches. It’s not the neatest job I’ve ever done, but it serves its purpose and I think that once I add on the collar, it really won’t be visible.

Also, for anyone else that might want to imitate me and make this all as one piece, I put an extra twisted stitch between the last two purl stitches of the fronts and the first two purl stitches of the backs, to keep the motif going steady. I’m not sure why that’s not written in there…I’m guessing it’s to make it easier to seam the pieces together…but it seems like a strange oversight and I like the pattern to flow.

11/14 - This sweater is definitely slow-going. It’s making me rethink the plethora of fingering weight yarn sweaters I have all queued up and ready to go…my next project definitely needs to be a heavier weight yarn, to balance out. I completed the decreases and last night started on the increases. I would have been much further along, but I got a little board with the seemingly endless repetition of the stitch pattern on this and cast on for a Pleiades scarf. I now seem to have LOST that scarf (oh, the horror! The HORROR!), which made me pick up this again and keep going. As much as I was really loving that scarf and wanted to finish it - only 3 rows away when I lost it! - I don’t want to cast on for it again until I’m certain it’s missing. Tomorrow I’m downtown where I think I lost it, and if I can’t find it then, I’ll consider it gone for good.

My original goal was to be done with this by Thanksgiving and get to wear it with Jen. I’m doubtful now that I’ll actually accomplish that goal - I kept thinking Thanksgiving was a week further off than it is - but I’m guessing I can at least have most of the body done by the time she gets back to town! Really, I know I’m going to adore this sweater when it’s done, it’s just really killing me with how slow it seems to be. I think I’ll feel more motivated when I finish at least one of the skeins of yarn. I’m knitting from two at a time, to keep from any weird colour changes between skeins. There’s definitely a noticeable difference between two of the skeins, so I’ve been trying to mix those two.

I think the other reason I switched projects for awhile was that the yarn was really taking a toll on my hands. I’m not sure why, but something about the tight twist just seems a little abrasive to me right now. I was loving working with that alpaca/silk blend, it was a great balance. Sigh Poor little Pleiades, I hope a knitter found you!

1/2/2013 - Obviously, not done by Thanksgiving! It’s a new year, and I just picked this back up again after a bit of a rest from all of the holiday knitting. Tonight, I cast on for the first sleeve - that’s right, I’m at the sleeves! I finished the body on my way home from Florida, and I might have started the sleeves right then just to keep going…but in packing for the trip, I had forgotten that I would need the smaller sized needles to begin the sleeves. Oops. In any case, they’re started now. Again, I am ignoring the pattern’s directive to work these sleeves flat. For the 5 billionth time, I ask the world at large, why would I knit anything flat that I can knit in the round? Less finishing is always preferable. I’m going to Cincinnati with Joel this weekend, so I’m hoping that with the long car ride there and potential gaming with several of his friends, I’ll be able to knock these sleeves out and be ready to finish it in a few weeks.

1/22/13 - We’re deep into the finishing stage now! One sleeve is attached, the other one is just waiting, and nearly all the ends have been sewn in. (I like to do that as I go, it really makes it easier not having to go through that tedium at the end of a project when all you want to do is wear your project!) The sleeves were knocked out in just over a week because I was so determined to finish. There’s a part of me that honestly thinks I might be able to get this done today, except there are other things I’d like to accomplish as well. Certainly before the week’s end, I should be done.

A few changes - I only made the sleeves 16.5” long - my arms aren’t that long, so I now take this into account. This is largely owing to the sweater fitness class I took with Anne Hanson a few years back. I now compare my measurements to the schematics so that I don’t have to constantly adjust or rip back after the fact.

I also did NOT steam block this. To start with, I don’t really know how. I looked up a few videos, but the truth is, I’m not sure what steam blocking really accomplishes for an unfinished garment that you can’t do with just wet-blocking. I understand why Anne uses steam blocking to set the seams, but I just feel like if I messed that up, I’d be more upset than if I didn’t try it at all. If I had someone with the proper equipment who could advise me, I’d consider it but otherwise, that just stays an idea whose time has not yet come.

1/30/13 - Done - DONE! I finished this on Sunday and I kid you not, I have worn it every day since then. This has now become my new bestest ever most favourite sweater in the WORLD. Okay, I know I say that about every new sweater I finish but seriously…this one fits PERFECTLY. The sleeves are just the right length. It makes me look skinny. It’s stretchy. It’s warm. I can tell just from 3 days of wearing it that this yarn is going to hold up amazingly and NOT get all pill-y, like some yarns we all could mention. I know that I complained a lot while I was making this and that it just wasn’t the most exciting project, but I knew the whole time that the results would be worth it, and BOY were they ever! I am so in love with this little sweater.

I had a little trouble with button placement on the button band. I can’t really say why, I just couldn’t manage to get them evenly spaced. There’s also a slight pucker just above the last button - because I’d made a mistake with the front edging and had to Macgyver a fix to it, one side was just a little longer than the other and this somehow became an issue only after all the buttons were attached. I stretched the other side just a little and gave it a shot of steam, and it looks better now…just not perfect. I wish there were some way to strengthen button bands on the hole side…I always hate that they don’t lay flat like cotton button-downs or even (dare I say it?) storebought sweaters. If anyone has tips, I’ll happily take them!

That being said, I love the bind-off - this took me about two days to complete. I did my first ever i-cord bind-off and man, am I in love now! It is so neat and tidy and just makes for such a perfect looking edge. I can’t ever go back, can I? I keep thinking of sweaters I made in the past that would have benefited from this…that’s one of the reasons I love to keep learning knitting techniques. There are always new things to be learned that will help make my product close to perfect…