6 Oct 2016: SQUEE! I love it! It has taken FOREVER for this to dry (and it’s still not quite dry yet). I finally tried it on this evening… I am so happy with how it turned out! I wasn’t sure about the pattern or the size I chose or the yarn or anything, but I’m really, really pleased. Here’s hoping for decent weather tomorrow to take some photos!

4 Oct 2016: Cast off second sleeve! Tried it on and really love it. Now Soaking ahead of blocking. I hope I can figure out how to block this correctly… I have never blocked a sweater with openwork.

25 Sept 2016: Ready to bind off first sleeve. Ended up doing 22 rows beyond 9th decrease. Only did ten rows of rib. Binding off using same Russian bind off as used on the body.

Picked up stitches for the second (left) sleeve using the same modifications (9 and 9, no decreases). Now that I’m into the home stretch, I’m really hoping to get this done quickly (end of the week??).

1 Sept 2016: Ripped back and started sleeve over. Still maintained the extra CO stitches (so 64 total instead of 58), but I decided not to decrease them out right away—or at all. I had most of the bicep done and decided that it was causing a weird pucker under the arm. Hopefully this will not happen. This should also give me the XL sleeve, which will better accommodate additional layers of clothing in the sleeve.

30 Aug 2016: Picked up stitches for first (right) sleeve. Instead of 6 and 6, I did 9 and 9. In the following row, I did k1, k2tog…ssk, k1. On the second round, I got rid of the last extra stitches with two decreases per end (k1, k2tog, k1, k2tog…ssk, k1, ssk, k1). I sort of now wish that I had just done one decrease per round, but it’s not horrible. Not sure how 6 and 6 was supposed to work… I’d have had huge gaps if I had done that.

Sleeve is knitting up quickly (watching “Stranger Things” while working on it helps!). Hope to have this thing done in the next couple of weeks, depending on work/home stuff.

28 Aug 2016: Finally bound off hem using what Cap Sease identifies as “Russian bind off” (here’s a photo tutorial and here’s a video tutorial). This is NOT the same as the “Lace Bind Off” (the k1, k2tog tbl thing which I often use but has too much flare for a hem like this).

24 July 2016: Ended up doing seven (7) increases before starting the ribbing on the hem. About halfway through the ribbing. Can’t wait to get this done! I’m a little anxious about blocking it… I’ve never blocked a sweater with lace panels on front and back like this, so I’m not sure how to best block it to expand the lace without deforming the non-lace sections.

16 July 2016: Completed fifth (5th) increase round. Will do at least one more, possibly two. At that point, I will be close to the 14.5” mark, so I don’t think I’ll do any beyond a total of seven (7).

10 July 2016: More delays! Finally some knitting time again. Only doing three decrease rounds on waist.

15 June 2016: FINALLY picking this back up again. Have been sidetracked with many things.

1 Nov 2015: Finished up the yoke chart Friday night and then got the sleeves onto waste yarn while watching the Royals vs. Mets Game 5 (GO ROYALS!). It was a good thing I had knitting… the early innings (read: everything before the ninth!) were so stressful! I’ll think of the Series every time I wear my finished cardigan. :)

13 Sept 2015: Cast on using Åsa Tricosa’s winding provisional cast on. I get gauge on 8s, so that is what I’m using, though I did the winding cast on over the 8 and a 5. I’m a little nervous about “finding” the 36th stitch when I switch directions, but I’ll get it figured out.

Planning to do the top portion in 39 1/2” size but will probably do some extra hip increases further down the line as I’ve got nothing up top and too much down below.

Modifications:

• Only did three (3) waist decreases.
• Did seven (7) waist increases. (The idea was to knit the 39.5” bust size but get close to a 43” hip size.)
• When picking up under arm for sleeves, I picked up 9 and 9 instead of the 6 and 6 called for on my size. I then knit the sleeve as the XL size sleeve (64 stitches).
• Only knit 10 rows of rib at bottom of sleeve.

New Stuff
On this project, I learned…

• How to do the Russian bind off.