Note that this sweater has a very trim fit. It’s designed to have very little ease - the M, for 42” chest, finishes out at 43” wide, for example.

3/20 - the back is done. It looks gorgeous and he loves the colours, too, so all is well.

6/10 - I’ve seamed the back and front, and knit the collar. It’s a trim fit, but he likes it.

10/21 - The sleeves are going to finish me. The forearm was too skinny so I frogged it back and reknit without the decreases after the ribbing: c/o 58 sts, no decrease after the ribbing, first inc on the 6th R of the pattern, inc every 4th R to 70 sts, then every 6th R to 88 sts as pattern. I think the upper part of the arm is wide and maybe should have stopped increasing at 80 sts. (??) Right now, the sleeve cap looks crazy-wide, but I’ll finish it and see. I’ve repositioned the decreases - instead of casting off the first two stitches in every row, I’m decreasing one stitch at the beginning and end of each row. I’m leaving one stitch at the outside edge and decreasing on the second stitch to make a nicer edge for seaming.

10/30 - I finished the first sleeve and set it in, then had him try it on. I was right. It’s too wide and too long. I’m going to take it out, frog it back to the elbow and make it both shorter and more narrow. (le sigh) I’m going to increase just to 78 stitches this time, and cast off for the underarm 2.5” sooner.

11/25 - completed the sleeves, and thought I was done overall, only to realize that the sleeve cap is too short to fit into the armhole. ARGH! Of course, I knit both sleeves before checking! So, back I go to the underarm decrease, to reknit the caps at a slower rate of decrease.

11/28 - After casting off three stitches at each side of the sleeves for the underarms, I cast off 2 stitches on every right side row to 60 stitches. Then I cast off 2 stitches on every row to 16 stitches, and cast off the rest. This fits much better, even though the sleeve cap is still a tiny bit short. I made it work.

12/23 - Decided to get this sewn up for Christmas. It looks great, the yarn fulled beautifully in the wash, and now it just has to dry in time to be worn tomorrow.