I’m a little up in the air on this one… will this yarn be too scratchy for something so fitted? At least it will keep my fingers occupied for a few days, and maybe it will get softer after a wash. We’ll see.

May 12th This really is my kind of pattern: decidedly simple, very little finishing and so straight forward that it leaves itself open to interpretation, embellishment and modification.

I plan to add more flair to the sleeves by increasing five stitches every 25 rows after the join and using the same picot edge that I used on The Gardener socks at the cuff.

Based on the picture I did at lunchtime today, I estimate the following for the color changes on the stripes:
12 rows blue
8 rows black
2 rows blue
3 rows black
1 row blue
8 rows black
2 rows blue
5 rows black (needle change here at row 2: see May 16th)
4 rows blue
3 rows black
2 rows blue
17 rows black
42 rows blue (36 to 40: back to #7 needle on row 2)
for a total of 109 rows.
(38 on size 7, then 30 on 6’s, remainder on 7s = 103 to 107 rows)

I’m getting about 24 rows every four inches, so that should put me at somewhere around 18 (16 to 17) inches or so.

To keep the stripes from jogging at the color change, I’ll use one of the techniques here: http://techknitting.blogspot.com/2007/01/jogless-stripes....

May 13th Argh!!!! It has to be Friday the 13th that something like this happens. I usually lock my knitting in the closet at night and usually shut the door to the living room, but last night, I let Thompson run free in the apartment because he was driving me nuts in the bedroom while I was trying to sleep and I had forgotten to put my work behind a locked door.

Sure enough, this morning I found the contents of my project bag strewn over the couch and my working yarn bitten off. It doesn’t look like he got much, but I really hate the thought of another surgery for an obstruction considering he just got his staples out last month for something else he got into… this cat eats everything. :(

I hope he’s going to be okay. Stupid cat.

Although it doesn’t look like he ate any, I’ll still tink back two rows to where I started this ball of yarn and check it against a full ball just to put my mind at ease… should take a couple of hours tonight, but I’ve got the whole weekend.

Oh, and as for the knitting, I’m almost done with one side of the sleeve tube. Because this is the first time working with wool, I’ve learned to fuse the ends together so I won’t have to weave in many ends when the knitting is done. I only knit 18 inches for the sleeves then added the picot edge.

May 15th Well, the cat probably didn’t eat much, if any. There was about 12” difference between the two balls of yarn when I measured, and I’m sure a few inches were used when I started the new ball. I’m still watching the little dude to see if he acts any differently… he’s still crazy as ever, and if his lunacy this weekend was any indication, he’s not feeling poorly at all.

I finished the sleeve tube, adding about 1-1/2” to the flat back portion before I started on the other side. The cuffs look great with the picot edging.

I picked up for the body, adding four stitches overall: 6 to the back and subtracted two from the front, and I’ve just started the 6th stripe.

The “k3-p1” rib goes very fast and I hope to be able to wear this soon!

May 16th For shaping, I changed to a size 6 needle after 38 rows in the body. After trying it on, it seems to be okay for the bust area, but it will need to get a little smaller from there, and I don’t think it needs to be nearly as long.

I’ve estimated that the row count should remain about the same even with the smaller needle, since I’m going to shorten this a little. Any edits for the stripes are noted in italics for May 16th.

May 18th Stayed up until 12:30 last night trying to get as much done as possible. I finished to just above my pants waistline and changed back to size 7 needles. I only have the big main color stripe left! If all goes well, I’ll be on to the finishing by tomorrow night! :)

Finishing will be a breeze, just a couple of small fixes and hardly any ends to weave in. I’ll need to reinforce some of the stitches in the front left and right where the body tube meets the sleeve tube, graft the picot edging at the cuffs, and then block… I should be complete with this project in fewer than ten days… thus proving that sweaters do, indeed, go faster than socks.

May 19th All finished! Pictures to come soon…