Turned out exactly the size I knitted, which of course is a bit too big for me. I knew I should have made a size smaller! I’ll wear it a while before deciding whether to pull it out and make something else.

Love the design and the construction of the collar and bands, hate the way the pattern is written. The wordiness, and plethora of charts for the simple 6-stitch pattern, just doesn’t suit me.

I also do not like sleeves that are picked up from the armholes, and worked down. I knew this before, and this project confirms it. Hefting an entire garment about to work the sleeve is barmy. In future all my sleeves will be worked separately and sewn in.

7 April 2012: Cardi is currently blocking.

5 April 2012: Took a deep breath, and determined to complete the cardi. Made full-length sleeves finished with [k1, p1] rib at the cuffs.

21 March 2012: Really not feeling the love for this. Haven’t done any work on it since starting the sleeves in January. It’s now on the Frog it or Finish it pile, with a definite leaning towards ripping it out.

19 Jan 2012: Need to get this finished off. It’s been sitting for a month awaiting sleeves.

The instructions would do better to have suggested which provisional cast-on to use. Most, but not all, PCOs result in one stitch fewer on the held sts than on the needle.

If you’re going to take advantage of the nature of a technique in a clever way, it’s helpful to let the knitter know which technique you have in mind! Something like a crochet cast-on will yield the correct number of stitches.

5 Dec 2011: The design is lovely, the construction interesting, and the project fun to knit, but I prefer clear and concise instructions. Mebbe that’s why I like Elizabeth Zimmermann’s patterns so much! =)

About to join the back and fronts together, I’ve reached another point of frustration. I’ve gone back and double-checked, but somehow come up a row short on one of the fronts. Not sure how I’ve managed to do that so I’m going to rip that out, and take hubby’s advice to ditch the pattern. Working from the pics, I’ll do my own thing for the remainder of the cardi.