Restarted my Red/White/Blue DK version on Mar. 20 after knitting for a week and getting past the colourwork yoke. Too big. Can remove 2 elephants! Also, starting the round mid-sleeve bugs me. Will rip back to the start of the colourwork and move the beginning of the round to the back of the right sleeve.

Ended up with 288 stitches after the elephants. 18 repeats. Didn’t do the row 37 increase. Only added 2 stitches to be 290 for the next 10-stitch pattern. Added 2 more for the bottom pattern to be 292.

Once I finished, knit 1 row plain then increased to 312. Split 94/ 62. Cast on 8 underarm stitches. 204 body stitches on 3.75 mm needles.

Changed my mind on the colours - I was anxious to use my Observatory Circle (named after the VP’s residence) and with Kamala Harris in mind, I liked the elephant pattern here as a nod to her ancestors living in places where there are elephants.

To go with the red MC, what better CCs than white (actually cream) and blue (actually blue/black tonal, which I preferred over lapis).

Made the (Republican) elephants blue for the democratic party.

Cast on 104 at with 3.25 mm needle. 8 rows rib. Switch to 3.75 mm. Using that needle for any plain rounds, and 4 mm needle for 2-colour rounds.

Sleeve: picked up 8 plus 2 extra on each side. Decreased 1 first row, then 1 second row to end up with 70. Started decreasing in the middle 1 away from center marker at row 5, then row 6, then every row 7 3 times to 60 st. Then every 10th row to 48 then 10 rows. Keep 3.75 mm needles for stranded.

Mods:

• Yarn is DK now, so 20 st/4 inches instead of 24. Use 3.75 for body and 4.0 for colourwork.
• no short rows. My first DK version I did just a few, as I think there are waaay to many in the pattern, but I didn’t like the look, so omitted them for v.2
• moved BOR to back of right sleeve instead of mid-sleeve
• skip a couple of rows of the chart with the 3 colours and thicker yarn don’t need as many rows and this fits my colour scheme better
• no cast off at sleeve split, picked up 8 instead as I had fewer yoke stitches.

Size 1 has 360 at sleeve split. Instead of casting off 16 and allocating 200 to body and 72 to each sleeve, change it to 220 for body and 70 for each sleeve plus cast on 5 each underarm so 230 total body.

Waist-shaping? No. In hindsight - I should have added it, or made the sweater shorter.

Old Notes from first swatching and colour choice.

I bought this pattern as soon as I saw it. Long sleeve or short? I decided on long sleeves as stranded colourwork means a double layer - too hot for something I’d wear when I wanted short sleeves.

Use bfl bluebell plus fiber optics Absinthe (bright lime) with Ooh Shiny (light gray) ( plus Duchess (burgundy) for some of the colourwork.

Absinthe is 368 yards/100 grams
Bluebell is 400 yards/100 grams
Duchess is 420 yards/100 grams
Ooh Shiny is 435 yards/100 grams

Do short rows after the yoke.
Make neck ribbing the same as MC, or use the gray.

Long - need 840 MC and 420 CC

Possibilities considered but rejected:

• Dandelion Fathom with plain CC
• Studio sock green MC
• Fiber Optic purple MC with Absinthe CC
• Studio sock black MC
• Caribou Cumberbachanal with Oooh Shiny contrast plus orange bits? or pink bits?
• Use gradient sets either gray or pink for CC?
• Use Montedale Baby plus a CC from the website?