6/6/10. Finished back and cast on left front. Stitches are much more even and do not look as if I’ve accidentally knitted into a lower stitch every few rows.

22/5/10. Picked this up again after a reasonably long hiatus. I took a very long look at the almost completed back (maybe 0.5cm to go) and decided that I didn’t like the way it looked. There were far too many visible flaws that didn’t look like they wouldn’t block out. At some point last year, during making the back, I changed to Knit Picks’ Harmony Needles and, whilst they have made a big difference, they can’t make up for earlier problems. Frogged the back and started it again.

16/8/09. Finished second sleeve, cast on back. Am still using first skein of yarn. Stitches are much more even on bamboo needles, but every now and again, I discover I’ve knitted into the stitch below, again.

18/7/09. Cast on second sleeve. Realised that I have accidentally modified the pattern - instead of starting with 4 rows of reverse stocking stitch, I did 4 rows of garter stitch on the first sleeve. Am not going to rip it out. Decided to modify the entire pattern so that all the “reverse stocking stitch” is garter stitch. It curls up anyway on this light fabric.

17/7/09. First sleeve is finished. It will need a good blocking. The needle changed helped with the knitting-below problem, but I’ve still had to correct a few of these errors as I’ve gone along. I don’t know how long the sleeve took to knit - maybe 8 hours, including the false start.

17/6/09 - After six inches of sleeve, I have a problem: I keep purling into the stitch below the one on the needle. I think that is because the needles are too slippery. I’ve been knitting this on 4mm Addi Turbos. Decide to rip out the sleeve and start again using my 4mm Addi bamboo circular needle.

On the gauge front, I decide to re-knit the sleeves casting on 50 stitches instead of 54 and working the increases based on the smallest size.

10/6/09 - I have barely enough yarn to make the 36 inch size - it calls for 732m, I have 750m - although the 39 inch size would be a better fit for my bust. Have decided to make back and sleeves in the 36 to fit my back, with the fronts in 39. It doesn’t do up anyway.

This is to be my travel-knitting project, since it fits into a make-up purse. I guess I’ll mainly knit it when I’m doing my once-a-month site visits.

Tension - using 4mm needles, got row gauge but stitch gauge is too big 20st/4inches instead of the requisite 22st/4inches. Decide to knit a sleeve first to see how much my gauge distorts the measurements.