December 28/10 - renamed the project “Hubris” for the sheer audacity of trying to make my first sweater ever seamless, especially seeing as I’d only been knitting for 3 months when I started the project.

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The plan is to work the body seamlessly. My Knitting Guru (aka my sister) has given me the magic formula for turning patterns knit in pieces into something knit seamlessly, so I’m looking forward to working that out. Her formula is at the bottom of these notes.

Sleeves will be seamlessly using the seamless set-in method described by Jared Flood in Vogue Knitting’s Winter 2009 magazine.

I hate this yarn. Apparently it softens up quite a bit with washing, which is great, but there’s a lot of vegetable matter in it, and frankly I’m sick of picking it out. I don’t think I’d knit clothes with it again, if I ever use it. I also have much softer yarn that I’d rather work with. Lesson learned: don’t buy yarn cuz it’s there and affordable. Affordable yarn can be softer and more pleasureable to work with.

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Sept 21/09 - Swatch: pre-wash, using 6 mms = 17 sts.

Sept 22/09 - Swatch: dried: 17sts (well, 16.5, but I think it’ll be ok).

Sept 23/09 - Finished the ribbing for the bottom, changed to larger needle size. 14 rows of ribbing.

Sept 28/09 - Finished one ball of yarn, have 7” of sweater. Hooray! Discovered the yarn doesn’t like spit-splicing, had to resort to lame knot in the middle of a row. Boo.

Oct 3/09 - 12 inches in, almost done the second ball of yarn. Looking forward to a change of pattern once I get to the place where I start doing the armholes.

Oct 4/09 - 15 1/4” done, aiming for 16”.

Oct 6/09 - 16” done on the body, have wrapped it around, and it will fit!! Hooray! I’d love an extra inch, though, so I’m going to add another inch to the length.

Oct 16/09 - Been letting this sit while I worked on some socks and legwarmers, but picked it up again yesterday, and CO for the first sleeve! Knitting it in the round, and am making some adjustments to it to make sure it’s wide enough for my flabby upper arms.

Nov 4/09 - Haven’t touched it in awhile. The first sleeve is almost done, but Socktoberfest and legwarmers for K took over for awhile. I’m looking forward to getting back to it.

Nov. 8/09 - Been back at it again, but must admit that I’m hating the yarn, especially combined with the Addi Turbo lace needles I’m using: the whole thing’s so sticky, it’s like pulling teeth to work on it. But, as I’ve got the fronts/back done to the armpits, and one and a half sleeves done, there’s no point giving up on it. I’m sad, though, that I find myself wanting to work on anything other than this, my first sweater.

Nov. 9/09 - Finished sleeve 2, will put both sleeves and the body back on the needles tonight and begin the raglan section of it. Yeah, I’m not really making this as it is published, more like making it up as I go along, with help from my knitting guru. Still not sure what to do about the cables running into the raglan section, though…

Nov. 23/09 - finally did the math for the set-in sleeves work, and put the whole project on the circular needle. It’s a tight fit!!
Bollocks!!!! I seem to have put the right front on the left side and vice versa. So my second cable is ending in my armpit. Soooo frustrated. Between this and the icky yarn, I’m so tempted to quit. ARG!

Nov 24/09 - tantrum over, I’m back at it. Did the math for the set-in sleeves, triple checked it, and discovered that the decreases for the arm holes will eat up the cable in question, so it’ll work out. Can I just say that all these stitches on a 40” cable needle is squishy?

Nov 29/09 - Hard to judge degree of doneness. I’ve had the project meter stuck at 75% for a long time, but now I’m done just over 4 inches up from the armpits. It’s flying along like stink, and I’m getting excited to wear it. (Prolly going to wash the thing in conditioner to help jump start the softening process once I’m done.)

Dec. 1/09 - letting it sit while I try to whip up some Mosey legwarmers. I’ve got sweaters, but no legwarmers, and it’s about to be cold. Bought buttons today, though. Rectangular silver things with some cross-hatching. First time buying buttons for handknits, and it was harder than I thought! Apparently I need to create a button stash, as well as my yarn stash…

Dec 28/09 - Got so into making the sleeves seamlessly that I completely forgot about the fact that I’d have to start making neckline decreases at some point, so I let it sit for a week or two until Xmas, when I could see my knitting guru face to face. Paid off, as she taught me a new method of frogging - pick up every right-side of the Vs in row to which you want to frog back, then just frog away, and you’ve already got the stitches on the needles.

Jan 10/10 - After stalling out over confusion regarding Jared Flood's seamless set-in sleeves instructions, I’m back at it again. Right front sleeve stitches consumed, and, after doing a brief victory dance, I’ll start on the Left front.

Jan 13/10 - Shoulders done and seamed. Been sewing in loose ends from skein changes and COs. Armpits kitchenered. Left: Hood, button band.

Jan 15/10 - picked up stitches for hood last night. Felt that I needed way more than the pattern recommended, and after reading the pattern, decided that I could pick up as many as I wanted and not mess up the hood.
4” into the hood. Booooring!!!

Jan 28/10 - let it sit again. 8” of hood done, 4” left, then to do the top of the hood and then the ribbing. Not looking forward to picking up all those stitches!

Feb. 9/10 - Finally the hood is long enough. Using Jamie12’s hood decreases, found here. Planning on using the 4:1 ratio for picking up stitches, but unsure of how many I’ll pick up as I extended the body of the sweater.

Feb 11/10 - Picked up stitches for left front (including left half of hood). Used 3:1 ratio for 190 stitches, and if a post on the CPH KAL board is right, you want to pick up stitches that are a multiple of 4, plus 2 stitches. 190 fits that bill. Of course this is the day before the Ravelympics, so it’ll sit again for awhile, but I’m that much closer to done.

Feb 22/10 - ripped out the button band, as it was written to be sewed up with the hood - but my hood’s already together. Will have to pick up stitches AAAAALLLLL the way around and do it in one piece. Dreading picking up all those stitches!

April 3/11 - I’ve compulsively picked this back up again, as Spring has made me crave a sweater to wear to work instead of a jacket, and, after all the knitting I’ve done, this is the closest sweater to completion. The yarn is still unenjoyable, and the vegetable matter still pisses me off. I’m hoping that, as promised, the yarn will be softer after washing and wearing. Unlike before, I’m using Knit Picks Nickel Plated needles instead of the AddiTurbos.

I’ve picked up 374 stitches around the front of the sweater.

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Knitting seamlessly:

• Add up CO for front left, back, front right, subtract 2 for each seam
• Put markers where seams should be
• Arm holes will be where seams were, BO a stitch or two there (need to confirm once I get there)
• Put back and right front on scrap yarn, work left front. Put each section on scrap yarn when complete, instead of BO.
• Use 3 needle BO at shoulders.