My Dad is in need of a new cardigan, so my goal is to complete this for his birthday (Nov 5th).

6/15 - Finished the back. So much Stockinette I nearly bored myself. First time I’ve ever did double decreases and they’re actually quite nifty and fun. First time I’ve done a provisional cast on too and nearly strained some fingers trying to pull the splitty yarn through.

6/30 - Gah, just when I thought everything was going smoothly, I screw up the collar section. Since I retype the whole pattern out to conserve paper and ink, I combined a couple of steps that I probably should’ve kept separately. Frogged a good 3-4” and going again knowing to not do the outer increases as often as the inner increases.

9/21 - Project took a summer vacation (it’s too hot to work with wool, or even sit and knit). Finished both fronts. Started both sleeves at the same time. For now, I’m increasing them ever 8 rows instead of 10 per advice of everyone else saying the sleeves are too long.

10/21 - Half way up the sleeves and I realized a) I didn’t cast on enough stitches (not sure how that happened), and b) there’s 2 less stitches on one sleeve and 2 more rows on the other. Ugh. Frogged, with 2 weeks left, pressure is on.

10/26 - Finished the sleeves, not sure how that happened so quickly. I ended up doing all the increases and stopping 1” short before the sleeve cap (probably for good because it didn’t look like I’d have enough yarn to complete the hem if I knitted as instructed). Since my yarn is superwash, I handwashed and threw everything into the dryer. I didn’t block (gasp) because in my past experience, superwash yarns tend to forget blocking.

11/3 - 1 day left to finish and I’m in a bind. I decided to do all the sewing first since I’m not sure if I’ll have enough yarn to finish the entire hem + sewing. As I was sewing the sleeve to the armhole, I’ve discovered the armhole is too big. I’m going to try picking up 2 stitches from the armhole to 1 from the sleeve to help ease it in better. Same goes for the collar and back. The buttonhole grafts are a bitch and look kinda shitty but they’ll have to do for now, I don’t have time to go back and fix those.

11/5 - Finished, barely in time. Should’ve went up one size. It’s a little small on Dad, but it’s good enough. I used every last bit of yarn so it’d be hard to go back and enlarge anything, or make any alterations.