1/8/2017
Making a gauge swatch for the first time ever. This yarn is SO soft.

1/16/2017
Re-started this project. Had done the cast on a week ago, but then I realized my foundation rows were off. I had never done a long-tail tubular cast on… So restarted… The pattern doesn’t give the clearest instructions here - it directs you to the Purl Soho tutorial. However, the tutorial is just a picture tutorial, which wasn’t clear to me at all, so I went to youtube and found a good tutorial at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFT1rbPV9UI

UNFORTUNATELY, the video tutorial I used starts off with a PURL stitch… the pattern doesn’t say so explicitly, but the first stitch should actually be a KNIT stitch. Since I didn’t know what the F I was doing, I followed the video, which meant that the foundation rows (and therefore the entire rib section) need to be the opposite of the pattern - i.e., foundation row 1: ktbl, slip 1 wyif… So I will start the ribbing with Row 2 and I think that should put me back on track…

Oy.

2/6
Things have been going quite swimmingly. Had a bit of confusion today when I got to the Left Front/Shape Left Shoulder section (pg. 5 of the pattern) today. I read the “Left Shoulder” to mean the left shoulder as worn. Reading through recent comments on Purl Soho’s webpage for the pattern, though, “Left Shoulder” actually means the left shoulder if the entire piece is spread out flat with RS facing… which is the right shoulder as worn! Phew, I thought I had screwed something up.

2/12
Joined the Left Side left and right shoulder stitches and Right Side left and right shoulder stitches together today. This calls for holding one needle with the left side stitches in front of the needle with the right side stitches (in front of = closer to myself). I found it easiest (particularly for purling together) to move the stitch to be worked from the front needle to the back needle and then working the two stitches together.

2/19
Bound off the shoulder stitches (joining the left and right fronts).

Picked up stitches for the neckband. The pattern doesn’t say exactly how many (it says to pick up 3 for every 4 rows around the Neck and then to pick up one for each bound off stitch, ending with an even number for the 1x1 rib)… I was not that precise and just tried to pick up evenly all the way around. Ended up picking up 114 st, which I think may be too many sts… the collar looks pretty dense. Knit the collar to the 1.5” as directed - 0.75” with size 6, then 0.75” with size 4 needles, but decided against doing the tubular bind off. Instead, just bound off using the size 6 needles. (Note as of 2/24: I’ve decided I’m probably going to redo the neckband. 114 sts is too dense/floppy for the size 37.5.)

I’m noticing that the border 5 sts on the front right and left panels curl in pretty stubbornly… Hoping blocking will help.

2/24
Finished the first sleeve. As I was near the end of working the sleeve, I realized that the pattern for the decreases and even rounds looked like I was maybe going to hit 15 3/4” before even finishing the decreases. And 15 3/4” before starting the ribbing was going to be too long for me anyway (I am petite, so short arms!!). So I shortened the sleeves a bit (maybe 1.5”): for the 2nd smallest size, the pattern calls for repeating the decrease round every 10th round 9 times. I decreased every 10th round 7 times, then cut the number of even rounds to 2, then decrease round, then 2 even, then decrease… then starting the 1x1 ribbing. I did use the LT tubular bind off… it wasn’t as terrible as I feared.

2/28

Finished the second sleeve. Ripped out the neckband. Plan to pick up fewer sts!

3/1

Picked up 88 sts for the neckband. Looks better than the 114 sts I had done the first time… but perhaps somewhere around 96-104 would be perfect. I’m just not enough of a perfectionist to rip it out again at this point.

So blocking now and will take pics soon.

3/2

All in all, I found this pattern interesting and challenging and I like the final results quite well. I have a few places where my finishing isn’t great (i.e., the picked up sts at the sleeves) - but those issues are my own technique, NOT the pattern. But I also wish in a couple places the pattern had provided a little more guidance. For example, a target to aim for on how many sts around the neck would have been helpful. Also, I think the pattern as written will result in super long sleeves, even if I weren’t so petite. I might be wrong on that, but something to be aware of.