I’m not super thrilled about the collar on this, so while I’m working on the ribbing, I’m going to see if I can figure out an alternative. I’m leaning toward a traditional shawl collar, but that means I’ll have to think about whether I want buttonholes or not….I should have thought about this a bit more before starting….

Since I didn’t swatch or block the swatch I didn’t knit, I’m having a hard time telling how long my cardi is. I’m really nervous about my yardage, so I’m thinking of making the body a touch shorter (15 or 16” instead of 17”, I think). I’m going to block what I’ve got now and start on the sleeves. Even though I can’t find all my size 6 dpns. :P

I’m knitting the sleeves 2aat. I’m sort of regretting that decision because my sleeves don’t match. It’s not so bad that I can’t stand it, but I’m on the fence….This is a note to myself that I need 10 repeats for the sleeves.

I ripped out the sleeves and knit them one at a time while alternating skeins. I’m MUCH happier. And I somehow figured out that I needed about 10 repeats for the sleeves without the note to myself. I think I did 9 and later realized that the sleeves might be a smidge short, but I would have had a serious case of yarn chicken on my hands if I had gone any longer.

Finally, the buttonhole instructions are absolutely crazy and really, really hard to understand. I’m a veteran knitter and I couldn’t make them work. I think they just describe one-row buttonholes, but if I’d never done one before, I’d never have known. I did one-row buttonholes following conventional instructions, not the ones in the pattern.

I was pretty sure I had decided not to put buttons on this guy (since I’ve worn it that way…), so I was pretty shocked to see that this project was 1) not finished and 2) had a crazy note about the button holes! I better find some buttons! Or not….