Jan. 13. Took the swirl jacket out to visit this afternoon. Stopped at Bliss Yarns in Brentwood, TN and ladies fell in love. They very generously agreed to try on the jacket and let me take their picture. As you can see, even size 1 suits a variety of women. This jacket was created for a fundraiser for head/neck cancer. Pam Tillis sponsored the purchase of the yarn. When pictures of the swirk was posted online people asked “what size it it?” I wanted to demonstrate the jacket size is versatile. I think a knit, Swirl trunk show may be coming to Nashville area. Hope so! Next I stopped at Miller Piano Specialists in Franklin. These folk have been active supporters of HBC awareness and were excited to see swirl ready for prime time. I am the brunette with the lary tube/button and big smile. :-)

I knit the rose and exchange spool of ribbon for a more narrow one. I’ll weave in the ribbon and see if I can get the rose looking presentable before photoshoot midday tomorrow. I think the TN Tangerine Rose looks great naked! I’ll post pics from photo shoot and fundraiser event.

Jan 12. Knitting portion completed. 81 actual hours total, not including time to tink or frog and reknit or knit rose. Set up on blocking wires and steam blocked and let sit for an hour as I don’t have time for wet block. Blocking, seaming and weaving of ends took 4.75 hours. Not bad. I bought a spool of ribbon yesterday but it’s too wide. Will take back and exchange for narrow ribbon. I knit the rose but making it look good is challenging me. I still have time to futz with it. My yardage usage was significantly more than amount needed as printed in knit, swirl book. My gauge was accurate and I documented each welt to be sure jacket came out with expected dimensions.

Jan 12. On the home stretch of the knitting portion of this project. Made a welt error yesterday during the noon time football game and didn’t discover it for several hours later. :-(
The mega frog cost me most of yesterday’s productivity.

Jan 10. Am working on welt 39, cuffed portion of sleeves. Am beginning to be concerned I may not have enough yarn to finish. If this is the case, the yardage indicated in pattern is far less than actually needed. The yarn I’m using is worsted weight, am using 4.5 mm needles and gauge is 4 st/inch, as indicated in pattern. I hope my concern is for naught. Knitting will tell.

Jan 8. Learned this morning fundraiser is next Wed, thec14th! YIKES! Started working welt 21, back and forth for bodice and sleeves. Good thing I have nothing else scheduled tomorrow. Or the next day.

Jan 7. 15 tiers done. Each tier getting quicker to complete. Can’t slow down yet. All other activities has been put on back burner until knitting is done. I will need a few days to block and finish. Still feeling the time pressure but beginning to feel it’ll be ready for the 19th.

Jan 5. Swirl cowl delivered to yarn sponsor as an early thank you. Date of fundraiser moved forward a week to Jan 19. Yikes! Need to knit furiously to hope to have jacket completed in time. No pressure! (Yeah, right)
4 tiers done. Much more knitting to go …

Jan 3, 2015 - yarn was delivered yesterday, beautifully packaged. 2160 yards of lusciousness! Today will wind all skeins and begin swatching, by creating a spiral cowl, productive use of swatch yarn and time. Directions may be found at knit, swirl website, pattern in the book.
Swirl cowl finished and steam blocked.
Started 8 segments of 66 stitch cast on.
First two welts completed. So far, so good.