“Half-way down, Hangs one that gathers samphire; dreadful trade!” - William Shakespeare, King Lear

This pullover is made of two parts grafted together halfway down the sweater. The colorway name is samphire. This quote, and therefore the project name, is kismet! Hopefully this sweater will be kismet too. Moreso than the last project I knit with the yarn. (That is currently being unknitted as I knit this sweater.) Seriously, a shawl sent me over the edge and now I am knitting my first sweater out of frustration. That’s pretty amazing.

My gauge with this yarn is 12 stitches per 4 inches on size 13 needles which works out to be about the largest size. I could have gone up to size 15, but I didn’t want the yarn getting too loose and quite frankly, I didn’t have the appropriate needles in that size so I left it as-is. So, to get the fit of the smallest size, I’m casting on for the largest size. I’m also knitting this sweater out of cotton, because I envision it being used as an early springtime sweater, when the weather is cool but not frigid. Otherwise, if I wanted to knit a sweater to keep warm in, I certainly wouldn’t make it lacy with a funky, stylistic dropped stitch down one arm.

Lower Body:
Three balls of yarn were used for lower body. I’m excited, as I think I’ll have enough yarn for the whole sweater! I’m also thrilled by how quickly this is knitting up. I love watching the pattern appear on my needles. I had tons of difficulty with the “left Twist” and “Right Twist” as I didn’t get a clear visual of what they were supposed to be from what she wrote. I’ve got the Left Twist down pat (after much Googling and several Youtube videos) but the Right Twist is a bit more complicated. Therefore, my second leaf looked very wonky on the left side. Luckily, I was knitting this at the wrong gauge (wrong number of stitches) at first and so I got the awesome opportunity to frog and reknit that lace portion. Hee.

Ah ha! One day in and I’m one-fourth of the way finished! The bottom half is done. I made it a little shorter than the pattern calls for (7 inches long instead of 9 inches) in an effort to conserve yarn and because I’m a petite (short torso) and don’t need all that length. Now to move onto the slightly-more-complicated top half. Here’s hoping!

Upper Body:
Ok, so I find these instructions very confusing, yet no one else out of 200 projects seems to be having my issues. The Buttonhole Row calls for you to k1-tbl, p1-tbl and then yo and k2tog. That is, I assume, to make the buttonhole. But then it says “work to end as est. (established)” which makes no sense, because the last time the pattern said that (in the bottom part) it meant “continue the pattern that we have just given you for this row.” but I don’t think that the pattern is telling me to repeat the yo, k2tog design along the whole row since then I’d have a ton of random holes on the neck. I’m obviously supposed to just continue the Twisted Rib pattern. Which they could have just told me. Oy. One thing I will give this pattern - the photos are big and clear, and the yarn is so bulky that it’s very easy to lean in, count stitches on the image, and figure out visually in that manner what you are supposed to be doing (or if you are making your stitches wrong).

I am at the Dividing Row. And it scares me, so I’m going to work on something else until I can get up the nerve to split my work.