January 9, 2015: I’ve put the body together! I had to model it on a female dummy, kind of makes me laugh.

How I raised the V-neck: I went through B.’s V-necks and asked him which height he liked best, then superimposed the chosen one onto the back. I marked the start below the collar ribbing and then counted the rows until the shoulder. I then came up with a decrease scheme that would get me to the required number of stitches in the pattern. It ended up being:

Row 1: dec
Row 2: dec
Row 3: knit straight
Repeat.

You’ll have to pick up less stitches for the collar than called for. I picked up in almost every stitch along the V-neck front, then followed the instructions as is for the back.

December 13, 2015: Well, it was that birthday time of year again and all I heard was chirps and grumbles of “waaaaah where is my 2015 sweater?” Demanding, hmph. To his credit, he picked out this glorious (and expensive) yarn during a trip to Camden, ME in the early summer and he even went through patterns with me over a course of months to pick just what he wanted.

But then I never did anything.

One of the issues was that the ribbing was clearly too tight and the v-neck to low… and I just didn’t feel like recalculating.

In the end, I am using a larger needle for the ribbing and followed the pattern. I suspect I might have to re-do the bottom later, but it’s worth trying as is. It still looks tight because there is a slip-stitch cast-on that is pretty firm.

I kept the fact that I was working on it a surprise, but in the end couldn’t finish the first piece in time for Dec. 10. So, his gift had the needles packed inside, too!

My gauge is too big, so I am doing the following:

BACK
Cast-on for M (91sts) with US 7, but increase only to XS numbers (99sts). Follow M lengths and XS arm/neck decreases.

FRONT
Cast-on 95 sts with US 7, increase to XS numbers (99sts). Follow M lenghts and XS arm/neck decreases. Raise v-neck (still need to figure that out).