Errors listed at bottom.

1/1/14 - Happy New Year! A fresh start and a fresh project to start on. This is to be my “Stitches sweater”, the sweater I knit to debut at Stitches West when I go with my knitting friends. I have a little under 2 months to complete it.

My gauge is almost correct. It’s a hair tighter in width, but a little looser in length. This should work out for my taller frame as I always need to lengthen sweater bodies and sleeves. I’m making the largest size to ensure I get the 2” of positive ease. I’m about a 39”.

I used the knitpicks color selection tutorial PDF to (hopefully) choose colors with enough tonal differences to not get muddy side by side. Found here:
http://tutorials.knitpicks.com/wptutorials/color-selectio...

1/5/14 - starting the color work section. When increasing in the color section, I pulled up a float of the same color as the stitch needed to make the M1L or M1R. I decided to make my dominant color be the new one that I’m adding. So, CC1 is dominant to MC. But CC2 is dominant to CC1 and so forth. This will keep it consistent throughout the color work section.

1/11/14 - found yet another error in the chart. Being the perfectionist that I am, I’m ripping back 24 rows to fix it. I really wish they had tested this better. Sigh… this really puts a kink in my plans for completing by Stitches.

1/29/14 - 5” into the solid body section. I think I can , I think I can…

3/17/14 - clearly I missed my deadline. That lower hem seemed to take forever and I’m really not happy with the way it’s curling. I tried to block it out but was unsuccessful. I will need to rip out this hem and redo it, possibly in 1x1 rib on a smaller needle. Not yet sure if working in the color gradient is worth doing in my fix. Until I figure out, I’ll start on the sleeves. I need this project to be done already.

6/16/14 - this sat in the naughty pile for a little while. The hem curled too much. I tried to fix it with elastic to no avail. I ripped out 2 weeks of work and reworked the hem and cuffs in a 3x1 rib as the collar (all ribbing worked in the smaller needle size). Finished. I have a couple of ends left to weave and may need to add elastic to the collar and hem (still a slight curl), but I’m calling it done. It’s a shame I won’t get to wear to wear it for a few months.

Errors found:

1. In the first row, the very first stitch should be WHITE (or MC), not the 1st CC, in order to create that clean line at the “corners”.
2. In the 6th row, when the peaks start to alternate between long and short, the 1st peak should be LONG, not short. Otherwise, you don’t get the staggering of the long peaks as in the photo. I learned this after I had finished the second color section, as written, and my long peaks lined up. So… Long peak 1st, followed by short peak and keep alternating.
3. The yardage required for the contrast colors is GROSSLY overestimated. I used less than 1/2 a ball of each of the other contrast colors (CC1, CC2 & CC3) in making THE LARGEST SIZE. I did use a different yarn, but the yardage is almost the same between the yarn I chose and the suggested (231 vs. 224 yds per ball). If I had done the cuffs and hem as the patterns was written, I might have dipped into my second ball of CC4, but I can’t say for sure not having done so. I used almost all of the MC, knitting my body and sleeves longer than the pattern suggested (I’m 5’11”)