Pictures to be added later
Rating the pattern as 5-stars, it’s wonderful and ingenious. Rating the difficulty as medium, only because there can be a challenge when it comes to gauge and blocking and final construction. But the pattern stitches are not difficult and this makes a great first wearable project for someone who has never made a sweater before. Easy with some minor challenges, thus the medium rating.

EVERYBODY NEEDS TO MAKE A SWIRL.

Love the pattern, love the finished product. Here is what I would do different next time, though:

1) The sleeves. I like the results of my sleeve modifications. I was hoping for something like a 3/4 length sleeve or at least something that wouldn’t stretch to be too long. My modifications worked out great. BUT, I don’t like the gathered cuffs necessarily. If I were to make another Forest Fiesta I would start to make the same sleeve modifications, but I would only go so far as to have one welt at the cuff, instead of the several that are gathered together. Then no sleeve stitching, and it would look neater. (I think the cuffs are a bit too stiff, but they may relax over time.)

2) I would use something other than the Noro Silk Garden Lite. I wasn’t in love with this yarn. So many knots, so many thick and thin transitions. i especially would not use it to do the long single seam. My yarn broke three or four times while seaming, and it was very frustrating.

3) I wouldn’t let it hibernate so long! Those are months that I could have been wearing this!

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So I did finish the seam the next day after my last update, but I had neglected to look further ahead in the pattern to see the sleeve stitching. So it did take me longer to finish. I put it down though and didn’t work on it for over a week. I finally finished-finished it on 6/11/13. And I love it! I need to get some pictures still. I wore it to my son’s varsity sports banquet on the twelfth, and it’s been way too warm to wear it since. I’m eager for some cooler days. I may have to wait until autumn, though.

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Pulled out of hibernation on 5/28/2013. All that was needed was to do the pinning and seaming, and I shouldn’t have let this sit so long. As of 5/29/2013, more than half of the seaming is done. I really didn’t need to be so intimidated by the seaming -- it’s not nearly as difficult as I imagined.

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1/13/12: I have been a terrible slacker. My swirl has been ready for seeming for three weeks, but I haven’t even started pinning it together. I can’t wait to wear it, but I still haven’t pushed myself to get started on this final task.

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12/22: Blocked and dried. All I have left to do is the seaming, and that thought intimidates me. I haven’t tried yet, granted, but I don’t necessarily see how the seam is supposed to run. If I have time, I want to do it in time to wear on Christmas day. But that’s a very big if.

eta: I am very proud of myself for making my own blocking wires using wire from a welding supply shop.

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12/16: The knitting was finished last night, and I only have two ends at the sleeves to weave in (thanks to using a Russian Join throughout.) Going to get ready to block. Maybe I’ll have ready in time to wear on Christmas when we’ll see family.

12/15: Not a lot of time for knitting in the last week, but I’ve managed to complete through Welt 48. Only 5 1/2 welts remaining! Hoping to finish the knitting today or tomorrow.

12/7: Hooray, my yarn arrived! I’ve not had a free moment to knit for the last two days, though. Hopefully I’ll get to it tomorrow. I’m so close to finishing the knitting that it’s all I want to do.

12/5: I’ve completed welt 43. I’m anxious to complete the next two welts then start the decreases. I’m not that far from being done, but I have to wait for more yarn! I had a difficult time finding anyone carrying my color 2036 online, it seems everyone is backordered. I found one vendor carrying it, and I’ve ordered 3 more skeens. I think I’ll really only need 1, and that’s only because many of the 5 row welts I did purposefully as 6 rows. Hope to have completed by the end of next weekend!

11/30: I’m in the middle of welt 30. I made some changes to welts 28 and 29 to shorten the sleeves and change the row count. I ended up shortening by 30 stitches altogether because I’m paranoid that the sleeves will be way too long. I figure best case, I get the sleeve length just right for me, worst case, I end up with 3/4 length sleeves, which would not be an unwelcome outcome. I also worked 6 rows instead of 5 for welt 28, adjusting the increases for rows 1-4 for welt 29 to make sure the sleeve lengths were even.

W28, R1: CO 4
W28, R2: CO 4
W28, R3: CO 4
W28, R4: CO 4
W28, R5: CO 4
Add W28, R6: CO4

W29, R1: CO 6
W29, R2: CO 6
W29, R3: CO 6
W29, R4: CO 6
W29, R5: CO 24
W29, R6: CO 24

I may continue working an extra row in the applicable welts while knitting the sleeves, to have the added width.

11/28: Finished Welt 20 last night and am binding off today and starting the working flat portion. So exciting! I did change up my row count for the stockinette portion. Initially because I lost count and did 6 rows instead of 5 on a welt, then I decided to continue to add extra rows in those welts leading up to the decreases. I have a concern that the size 3 could still be too small, so the extra rows in those welts could give just enough extra length that I’ll need. The extra rows in those welts are not at all noticeable as different from the outer welts in which the row count was 5.

11/17: Finally back to my Forest Fiesta. I hope to get a lot done over the next couple weeks to get back on track. I’m done for now with the Special Olympics scarves, so now it’s time to get some knitting for me done.

9/26: I made a little progress after my last post, up to Welt #10 now I believe. It is very slow-going, and no progress at all the last few weeks. I’ve been so busy that I’ve only been able to work on portable projects. (And Gears of War 3 for Xbox 360 came out last week -- can’t help myself!) Swirl work will resume soon. I really want this for the autumn weather when it hits.

8/28: Finally got around to some pictures. This has been sitting for the week while I worked on a scarf for Special Olympics, but back to my swirl this week.

8/19: Completed Welt #4. Discovered during Welt #3 that I had made an error on Welt #2 and the decrease row -- I read it as K2tog, K2tog instead of K2, K2tog -- Egad! Faced with the decision to rip back or try to tweak, I decided to skip the decrease in Welt #3 so that the stitch count would be correct by Welt #4. If I was doing a different Swirl I probably would have ripped back, but I don’t think it will be super-noticeable with Forest Fiesta and with the yarn I’m using. We shall see how it turns out… (hoping for the best! Especially because if it is all messed up it will be a crazy-expensive risk gone wrong.)

8/17: Completed Welt #2. Was overjoyed when I hit my first decrease row. :)

8/16: Completed Welt #1. Also did my first Russian Join with success! This is way less trouble than having all the ends to weave in!

8/15: Completed flat rows and joined. Tricky with so many stitches! I think for my next swirl I will begin with a longer cord to be able to flatten out the stitches easier to make sure I get the join right.

8/14: Cast on for Size 3, 577 stitches using two balls of yarn for recommended LTCO. TGFY (Thank God For Youtube), as it was my first time using those methods. It was a piece of cake. The hardest part was all the counting (and recounting and recounting.)

Ready to cast on!

8/8/11: Dry swatch pin-blocked per Author’s instruction in the book -- Success! (Stitch gauge right on; for Row guage, I stretched the swatch as instructed and pinned -- the result left welts still slightly raised, the outcome hoped for.)

8/7/11: Finished and blocked swatch

8/6/11: Started swatching.