Pictures with Santa on 8 December!

Silver is square: 28” chest, 28” back length. This makes her at the top end of the M size or the bottom (or a bit lower than bottom) on the L size. Since I did the XL for Sam and that was tight (but shouldn’t have been), I’m doing the L size around, the M size for the length--or some combination of the two.

I’m not working the high turtleneck. I’m going to knit a normal neck (no hole for the leash), then knit a separate snood or hat for her--maybe this one. I’m also probably going to play around with the stitch pattern.

12 November 2012: I’m to the last half-dozen rows of the gusset and I’m not even close to gauge…row or stitch. I’m going to frog this and actually knit a gauge swatch (hunh?).

Gauge is 17 stitches, 20 rows in 10 cm. With US8, I’m getting 18.5 stitches, 24 rows in 10 cm. I can live with this. I can get whatever length I need on the chest gusset by knitting 6 rows for every 5 the pattern calls for. That’s the only area where number of rows is important; other areas are knitted to fit.The width should be fine since Silver falls on the edge between the M and the L sizes, and I already was knitting the larger size.

24 November 2012: Got a deadline: 8 December 2012 is potentially pictures for SEGA. It’d be nice to have the sweater done by then. Note: Working the belly panel to the width of the XL size, length of the M (or L) size, and working 4 button holes; 3 button holes would leave too much space between buttons. I’m working a two-stitch garter edging on the body to prevent rolling; I should have started that earlier (on the short-row section). Also, garter stitch on the first four stitches of the belly panel, then ribbing across, produces a garter button band that tries to draw up really tight. I’ve changed the garter band so that I have one row of purl bumps on the right side, two rows on the wrong side, one row on the right, etc.; that’s helping to prevent the band from drawing up tighter than the stitches it borders. (The first inch of the button band is in regular garter, so I’ll work the last inch that way too; I’m calling this a design feature.)

28 November 2012: Change of plans. The button panel looked long, so I ended it about an inch after the third button hole. I put it on her and measured the length. The sweater keeps getting this strange gather/fold over her shoulders. I don’t mind that, but I want to allow for that when I’m figuring the width. With the fold popping up high over her shoulders, I need to knit another 13.5” on the body.

1 December 2012: Used just a bit of the third skein. Need to sew on buttons and weave ends. And make a hood for Silver. And for Sam. By 8 December 2012.

Good photos later. But I didn’t put this on her for pictures with Santa. I wanted the photos to be her--not her sweater. I’ll take my own photos of the sweater.

25 April 2013: So I bought two cards, each with two buttons. I now can find only one card--and I need 3 buttons. I see a shopping trip in my future.

All this needs now are buttons, so I’m going to call it “finished.”