18 Oct 2017: Finally got the buttons on! Still need to wash it, but I love the way it turned out!

25 Sept 2017: Finished up Henry’s sweater, minus sewing on the buttons, yesterday afternoon while waiting in the Blue Pearl waiting room to learn about Yosho. I wish I hadn’t done that, because I think it will now always be tainted with his death. At the same time, working on it kept me from going nuts while waiting. So, so hard to say goodbye to such a dear, sweet friend of so many years (17!). I love you and miss you so much, Yosho Cat.

17 Sept 2017: Finished up the first sleeve. I usually cast on extra stitches under the arm and then immediately decrease to mitigate holes, but the BOR placement on this wasn’t standard, so I didn’t. I did have to tighten up a couple of holes there when done, but they weren’t a big deal.

I ended up doing 30 rounds beyond the shoulder decrease and then five repeats of the textured stitch near the cuff. I used the same tubular bind off that I used on the hem.

14 Sept 2017: After much agonizing and a false start on the neck bind off, I went with a regular bind off in pattern. (This was after getting partway through a Kitchener bind off on a single needle and changing my mind, unsewing that—way worse than sewing it—and then restarting the regular bind off in pattern, only to run out of yarn 15 stitches from the end. Everything has been crap today, so why did this expect to go differently?)

11 Sept 2017: Decided to do the neck band next instead of the arms because I have a portion of the second skein left from the body, and I think it should be enough for the neck (but probably not enough for a full arm). I want to try to get both arms done from the same final skein so that they “match” even if they’re a bit different from the body and neck.

10 Sept 2017 Finished textured section and ribbing. Bound off using tubular bind off on one needle (I used Cap Sease’s book for this—she calls it “Kitchener bind off”—but there are tutorials online like this one that are similar. One big difference is that, in her technique, the first stitch is a knit stitch. Most of the tutorials I’ve found online want it to be a purl. It does influence how you start).

8 Sept 2017: Started on textured section; doing this on 10s. Started second skein of yarn ~0.75” before start of textured section. I only have three skeins, so I hope I have enough!

6 Sept 2017: Separated for sleeves and joined in the round. To cast on for placket, I used the “mystery cast on” that I love so well… which is really just backward knitting a kf&b (I think)! My joins under the arm and at the edges of the placket were a little loose, so I used a trick I found on Åsa Tricosa’s blog, wherein you lift that long bar into essentially a YO and then knit it together with the next stitch on the needle. That seemed to snug things up nicely.

3 Sept 2017: Cast on for 4 yo size using Åsa Tricosa’s winding provisional cast on. I’d get gauge on 7s, but I wanted it to be a bit bigger. The 4 yo size would fit now, but I’d like a little bit of room to grow this season; if I go to the next size, 6 yo, he’ll be swimming in it until at least next winter. Thus, I went up a needle size to match that used on his sister’s sweater.

As with his sister’s Brave Diana cardigan, I’m using Rios. However, this colorway (Cumparsita) seems lighter weight than the Teal Feather did. It should still work, but it is kind of weird.

A note on the project name:
The colors reminded me of the Ravagers’ garb in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, and Henry loves the Guardians.

“I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!”

Dangit, Yondu.