April 11
After doing the neckband 5 times ( don’t ask), I am now finished! Whoohee! I think this is my first full fairisle sweater, my first neck and sleeve steeks. I’m very happy. It’s a tad tighter than I imagined, but it’s still wholly satisfactory FO!
Steek covering by: http://www.kidsknits.com/finish_raw_cut_edges_of_my_steek...

March 29
Did my first neck-steek. It looks weird, because it bunches up the front, but once I’ve cut it it will make perfect sense. It’s going really fast now, and I think I have enough of the peach cashmere after all. Just not for the edgings, prolly, but that’s no biggie.
March 28
Washed and dried one sleeve. Crocheted reinforced steek borders, a la Eunny Jang, and then cut. I made my steek too wide, though, so I“m going to have to cut excess fabric, but it worked! My first steeked sleeve is a proper sleeve cap shape and fits…Yay!
Below the sleeve pics is the start of my armhole steek.
March 24
Up to 30 cm on the body. Getting closer to the armhole steeks!
Unfortunately I think I’m going to be running out of peach laceweight cashmere. I’m dying up some beige from a random Colormart kit with rosehip tea, which produced a fairly close result on a test run. We’ll see….
March1
Started the body. Slow going.
Jan 21
Swatched the gingham for the left front. The other grey I’d planned to use for the body is too light! And I don’t have enough of the sleeve color….The solution, with much aargh!: peel off the 3 strands in my fingering flannel cashmere. A hellish job, but the color is almost identical, and it means not buying new yarn, very important.
Jan 18
Got the second sleeve done! Have decided on striped garter edgings. I’m now going to have to swatch the three other motifs for the body. Wish me luck!
Jan 6
3 and something vertical repeats, sleeve cap done. Started on the herringbone pattern for the other sleeve ( which isn’t fairisle, as I thought, but slipstitch, but who cares), but it has an odd tension so I will have to go down at least a needle size. We’ll see! Might be a lot faster with two alternating rows of color….:-)
I’ve decided on checks and flowers(or waves) for the front, and a diamond-like pattern for the back.
Jan 4
Two vertical repeats of the leopard pattern. I suddenly seem to have gotten the knack of tension, since my last 4 inches are much less puckered than before. I wish I’d known I needed warming up inches, but it’s done and not going to do it again!
That said, it’s probably wise to keep knitting this at more than 10 rows a day, to keep that tension magic flowing. Sigh. Still, it looks really pretty. Going to be worth it!
Jan 2
Did yesterday’s rows, since it was a total washout, due to family visit and fallout. Today’s rows later. It does seem to go faster with this 10 rows a day thing…
Jan 1 On my second repeat. Only a few rows behind schedule, and I’ve got about half a sleeve…
Dec 28
A leopard chart is impossible to memorize, so this is slow and non-tv knitting. I’m only 6 inches in or so, so I’ve decided to do 10 rows per day at least. That seems little, but it will force the pace faster than it’s been so far! Thank god it’s only this sleeve in the leopard pattern, the others will probably be easier to memorize.
Dec 11
So far I’ve been swatching.
Unwashed, wet and dry pics (from top).
From below: 2 strands of sparkle grey merino, 2 strands of sparkle beige cashmere. (28 x 35)
Then: substituted grey laceweight cashmere for one grey sparkle strand. (28 x 35)
Then: substituted peach heavy laceweight cashmere for one beige sparkle strand. (26 x 35)

The knitting is easier if you don’t have 2 sparkle strands; for one, they’re very thin, and also harder to grip. I expect that will ease out with knitting in the round, though. Waiting for the verdict once the tiny swatch is dry.

Verdict: Not enough colour contrast between the two doubled sparkle yarns. Substituting the cashmere is a huge improvement ( more contrast, not softer but snugglier, fuller). Love the peach against the grey, so that’s probably going to be it…