11 August - Finished at last! I was beginning to think the day would never come. It’s a bit of a killer this one, you do your normal back, front and sleeves, only in a lace pattern, then just when you think you should be nearly done, you have to do a hood, still in lace, but on smaller needles. Then you have to pick up about 300 stitches round the neck and hood, and do an inch or so of stocking stitch. And then, just to cap it all, there are what seems like several miles of i-cord bind-off, which has to be one of the most boring things known to man. Plus the sewing up.

To really put the icing on the gingerbread, I decided to change the bind-off round the neck/hood, and do the sssk every seven stitches instead of every five, but that was too loose, so I had to painstakingly rip it all out and do it again - this time I did every six stitches up the sides of the v-neck, and alternately every four or five stitches round the hood, which has worked much better. I did every five stitches round the sleeves, and every six stitches round the bottom.

The modelled shots and the WIP shots are much truer to the real colour than the hanging up ones.

13 July - the back is done! Just the front and the hood to go. Oh, and far too much icord cast off.

30 June - both sleeves are done, I’ve been slowed down by the need to knit something very plain whilst watching Wimbledon, so I’ve done the stocking stitch at the bottom of the back and may have to find something else to knit for the next few days….

21 June - one sleeve down!

17 June - I’ve started with a sleeve to double check my tension, all going well so far! The pink is the provisional cast on, I used a crochet cast on instead of the one in the pattern. The yarn is gorgeous, so soft!