January 1, 2026

finished the back and picking up left shoulder. I am a little unsure if I am doing the waffle increases correctly. I have a feeling I will be ripping back a few rows. IF I MAKE THIS AGAIN consider picking up 49 stitches instead of 48 to get all the way to the stitch marker.

January 2, 2026

Yeah… I was right. I have ripped and knit the left shoulder neckline shaping twice. 1st time I tried to maintain the waffle pattern, but the increases didn’t fit (for example, the instruction to m1p would fall where there were already 2 purls and intuition said I needed a m1k. So I assumed I did something wrong and ripped back. Second time I was really careful to follow the pattern exactly, and the same thing happened. Where the pattern calls for a m1p or m1k specifically, it throws off the waffle pattern. So I tore back a couple rows and tried to add the increase that is intuitive and it doesn’t give the pretty shaping line (see photo2) So I’m tearing it back again. The pattern doesn’t indicate which stitch of the waffle pattern should start the row. It clearly identifies the edge stitch, the order of ribbing stitches, and just says waffle pattern to end. So I’m guessing, though I’m just following the order in the chart, it actually needs to be in another order for her called for increases to work. Not sure if I will just wing my own intuitive increases, or reorder the waffle pattern. Tomorrow. I’m going to sleep on it.

January 4, 2026

IF I REMAKE THIS, OMIT THE DECREASES AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH SHOULDER SHAPING. ITS MESSY AND UNNECESSARY. The waffle loop dress is without them and I prefer it. But having torn out and reknit these shoulder pickups and neck shaping 7 times now, I don’t know if I can bear to do it again.

All of my problems are because I flipped the chart & picked up the shoulders as kpp instead of ppk

Going to rip back ….

February 11, 2026

I did rip back and start over. I was so sick and work was insanely busy for the month of January so really didn’t have time or focus to work on this, except maybe a couple hours a week. It’m pretty sad this is taking so long. I split for sleeves and knit about 3 inches before I finished the 1st skein of yarn and started the sleeves.

I finished the first sleeve with the decreases according to pattern and I’m not 100% sure I like it. I think I want a straight sleeve with no decreases.

So i made the second sleeve straight with no decreases. I did 29 pattern repeats and ended with knitting the final two knit rows as follows: switch to smaller needle and knit one row. Next row decrease 87 stitches down to 70 -
K2, k2tog, k4, (k2tog, k3) 14 times, k2tog, k4, k2tog, k1 then 18 rows 1x1. tubular bind off with 2 set up rows

I plan to finish the body and block then decide which sleeve I like best.

February 26, 2026

Finished and blocked then compared the sleeves. I do not like the decreases at all, and my straight sleeve blocked out to two inches too long. I spent my knitting time over coffee this morning ripping out the sleeve to the beginning of the decreases. Deciding now if I want to rip back the ribbing and 2” of the other sleeve to reknit the cuff, OR if I want to attempt to cut the cuff off and graft it back on. What will take longer? This thing has taken so long that I am dreading working on it. I just wanted to be done before it got too warm to wear

March 1, 2026

I made so many mistakes this took forever but I’m finally done and I’m so happy I could cry