16th of October 2012: Goal width is 35” (same as last one), gauge is 5,43 sts to the inch (in a pattern all about maths, I’m giving myself two decimals!). Cast on 190 sts, 176 sts for hem, using Jared Floods technique of provisional cast on.

14th of March 2013: Well, I knit until I was ready to make sleeves and combine, and realized that no, I really really wasn’t going to be able to find a dyelot match for the two skeins I’m lacking. So after procrastinating several months, I’ve decided to rip back and do row by row yarn-change to blend the colors. Good thing for me I have Easter travels coming up with plenty of time for mindless stockinette! I’m hoping to come back from the trip with a nearly finished sweater - or at least the body and sleeves done.

23rd of April 2013: Back to where I was before I started frogging. Casting on for sleeves.

7th of July 2013: Casting on for second sleeve. First sleeve has been done for a while. I’m doing a tubular cast on for the sleeves, and a 1x1 rib in the original color, before striping old and new for the rest. I just increased whenever it looked and felt right, so I’ll have to doublecheck against the first sleeve to make this second one as close to identical as I easily can. Sleeves are cast on with 38 sts.

31st of July 2013: On the saddle. Notes on decreases etc: For left leaning decreases I slip 1 kwise, slip 2 kwise, insert left needle to knit 2tog, then slip 1st st over. I prefer this over slipping 1 over without slipping the other two since it leaves the bottom stitch over the middle stitch in the decrease, and it’s not as neat. And it also doesn’t mirror the right leaning decreases. Right leaning decreases are k2tog, pass back on left needle, slip 3rd stitch over, pass over to right needle. For the saddle decreases I am slipping the first of every row. The pattern doesn’t call for that, but it seems to make a tidier line of stitching with less pulling. Almost there!

And! I’m feeling clever since I’ve woven in all ends as I went along, before I’m even done knitting. I like the variation it brings, and that I can do as much or as little before going back to the knitting. And of course that when I’m done, I just have one yarn-end left to weave in! Very managable. I don’t cut the yarn-ends until after it’s blocked. I find that washing makes everything shift into place, so it seems better to wait to cut the yarn-ends until then.

Someone commented while I was making this that the yarn would soften up after blocking, and she was totally right. it felt a little scratchy while knitting but is much softer now.

For a next time I think if I wanted to do a colored-faced hem, I would treat it like a traditional ribbed hem and increase after the hem. Right now it kicks out a little, and I’m not crazy about that. I might try to steam block it and force it to shrink a little.