Basics: I bought this yarn on clearance at Michaels, and then decided that I probably would be better off with solid colors for a lot of the sweaters I’m interested in… Sigh. Then I took another good look at Lia, and I think I can make this variegated work for that. We’ll see! I’m currently swatching with sz 11 bamboo circs (40”), and we’ll see where I go from there.

14 June 2011: Sticking with the size 11 circs. Figured out Jeny’s Stretchy Slipknot Caston pretty quickly, and have now used up 1 entire ball on the k3p2 rib. :) I figured I’d just use the whole thing, then measure to see what I thought of the length… Since so many other projects bemoaned the sweater’s length (or, well, lack thereof), I figured this would be an easy way to add on a bit! I measured once the ball was done, and the sweater was about 7 inches long -- 2.5 inches longer than recommended in the pattern. I measured the other way the pattern lists, as well, “11 inches less than desired length to underarm,” and came up around 3 inches ‘too long’ there, too, so I think it will work out nicely for me. :)

15 June 2011: Did the entire body cabled/increase/decrease section today, using a colored pencil (which I already had on hand to mark the chart rows) as a cable needle. I was pleasantly surprised by just how easy it was to do the cables themselves, and also by how quickly I was able to adapt to reading the chart instead of just written instructions. I even took out my stitch markers for the charted section after the first couple of rows, and had no difficultly keeping track. I’ve now tried on the sweater using waste yarn, and I’m very pleased with it. By measurements, I ‘should’ have made the 1X, but I wanted to be sure it was roomy enough that no (or not much) skin would show thru the fabric, so I did the 2X, and it feels and looks just right. Tomorrow, I’ll decide whether to do the bust short rows (I think I will, but I’ll measure and such), and then hopefully finish up the body!

16 June 2011: Decided to do the bust short rows. I think a C-cup justifies them, LOL.

18 June 2011: Finished the body yesterday, and I love it! (Except that I did the three-needle bindoff at the top backward/inside-out, ARGH!) I’ve started the left sleeve twice now, though, and had to rip it out both times -- first try, I missed the minor detail that the increase row also needed to be repeated, until I was binding off and realized I didn’t have nearly enough stitches… Second try, I got through the cable portion and somehow ended up with a giant ladder down the side of it. I’m setting this aside for a few days, so I can come back to the sleeves fresh.

13 July 2011: Finally came back to this, and did the first sleeve yesterday. After realizing that knitting the sleeve cap in the round Would Not Work, I switched to doing it back-and-forth, and everything else went swimmingly.

14 July 2011: Finished up the second sleeve today, which went even more quickly than the first. Now all that’s left is to sew the sleeves in… once I figure out how I want to handle the wrong-way-round three needle bindoff.

19 July 2011: I made a brief effort to pick out the backward bindoff, but then decided I just didn’t have the guts for it. Since this sweater is made with a bulky ‘squooshy’ yarn anyway, and the yarn is variegated, and and and, I decided to just seam over the inside-out three-needle bindoff, and I’m quite pleased with the results. :) I’m a little less pleased with the seaming for the sleeves, but it’s liveable, and I’ll take a stab at smoothing it out a bit more some OTHER time. ;)

Is it perfect? No, far from it. Am I happy with it? Yes, quite!