Done and it’s gorgeous!

The yoke is still a tad big on Fred, which tells me that while his stomach is large, his shoulders should really only be a XL/XXL. It’s actually also a tad long, but that shouldn’t be an issue. I didn’t need to compensate for the tummy as much as I thought.

What an easy pattern! This could almost be called boring, it’s so easy if you’re comfortable with stranded work.

2/9 - I’d put this aside as I was frustrated with the zipper and collar.

went back along the collar and instead of ripping out the bind-off (was afraid it would be too tricky with the steek) I just picked up and knit stitches. On the next row, I did k2tog, p1 to tighten it right up. Added about 4 cm of ribbing and then bound off again. Nice!

After looking at the zipper again, I’m going to call the small flap an (unintentional) feature. Picking out the black thread on the black zipper was going to be horrible. Lesson learned - if I run into issues again, stop and grab the seam ripper before actually finishing.

26/8 - Sewed down the side stitches and steeked yesterday. What an anti-climatic, easy situation! I thought that the stitches would be completely loose and I’d have ends to weave in but it all worked out beautifully. I now understand why you want to alternatve the colors in a checker pattern when doing those steek stitches.

The zipper caused me some more trouble. The side without the zip went in without any trouble. The other side was difficult - even though I’d used some button-band interfacing, it had somehow managed to grow to nearly 3 cm longer than the other side. I got it in, but my stitching was incredibly messy. I’ll be ripping it out and doing it again properly.

I’ve also found that the 3 cm of ribbing on the collar is not nearly enough. I’ll need to find a way to increase that, as it does not cover Fred’s t-shirt collar so looks very sloppy. I probably should have considered this before doing the steek.

23/8 Grafted together the underarms with these instructions - really not so hard! http://www.tricksyknitter.com/how-to-graft-underarm-stitc...

Gave it a bath, ended up using a bit coconut oil to help soften as we don’t have any conditioner in the house. Got myself soaked on the way to the washing machine, but sending it through the centrifuge took out a ton of water. Layed it out to dry. The stitches have evened out nicely!

21/8 Bound off and wove in all the ends. Tomorrow I’ll graft the underarms and give it a bath.

20/8 started on the neck ribbing. The end is in sight! I laid it out on the bed just to see how it looks. Pretty fantastic!

8/8 - Completed the increases at 45 cm - not quite sure how I calculated this would take 12 cm and it took 8, but ok. 5 cm until the sleeves are added in!

Started the 3rd to last (two balls remaining) of the really dark grey. It’s going to be very, very close.

This might be my biggest project ever and knitted in record time. Remember, in Scandinavia - winter is coming!

6/8 - Started the increases at 37 cm. This is the sweater that eats balls of yarn for breakfast!

2/8 - 22 cm knit of the body, going to 38 cm before doing decreases. It’s boring, but part of making a sweater. :)

Knit the ribbing with a 3mm, stranded work with 4 mm (good choice) and stockinette with 3.5 mm.

28/7 - sleeves

Finished up the increases on the second sleeve. Really necessary to use 80 cm cables when doing magic loop, 60 cm became really fiddly.

Cast on 54, one round of stockinette before increases, increased to 86, put 7 stitches at end of round and 7 stitches at beginning on waste yarn (14 stitches).

24/7 - Math completed :)

I’ve refactored the pattern, it will be an average of 10% bigger (6% at chest, 13% at stomach).

That means the following yarn requirements:
A: 990 meters (10 balls = 1000 meters)
B: 110 meters (1 ball = 100 meters)
C: 110 meters (1 ball = 100 meters)
D: 110 meters (1 ball = 100 meters)

The largest size called for 9 balls of color A - I had raised that to 10 just in case. In hindsight, at least one more would have been better. I think the contrast colors will be OK, it’s only an extra 10 meters.

All of the math is worked out, coming in at correct gauge, so all is left is to knit!

I’ve got the cuff and lower part of one sleeve done, the yarn knits up beautifully.

19/7 - Initial math
PDF is in Evernote
2XL = 126 cm chest, Fred seems to be about 130
Need to upgrade to 3XL, but the pattern seems to be pretty logical
Note! Fred’s stomach might be 150 cm - size up more?

Gauge: 18 stitches/10 cm

Recommended yarn: Létt-Lopi (100% Ren Ny Ull. Nystan ca 50 g = 100 m)
http://islina.se/produkter/garn/lettlopi/lettlopi-askgra-...

Fg A (10005 -) Ca 300 (350, 350, 400, 400, 450) g = 900 m
Fg B (10058) Ca 100 (100, 100, 100, 100, 100) g = 200 m
Fg C (10056) Ca 100 (100, 100, 100, 100, 100) g = 200 m
Fg D (10054) Ca 100 (100, 100, 100, 100, 100) g = 200 m

Standard price = 30 sek / ball of Létt-Lopi
16 balls = 480 sek

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Drops Alaska
1600 meters
1 ball @ 50 g = 70 meters
23 balls @ ~ 22 sek / ball = 506 sek

There’s really no price difference.