Fit: gauge 14 sts/4”; c.o. 60 sts; cont. in pattern until 31 sts ea. for front plackets, 40 sts for sleeves, 16 sts to either side of cable panel on back; work to 9” shoulder seam unstretched; split for sleeves; backwards c.o. 6 sts/underarm; start dec. @ 3” fr. underarm (2 sets of 4 dec.); start hip inc. @ 6” fr. underarm; cont. in pattern until 14” fr. underarm; c.o. 10 sts @ underarm for sleeves; dec. 2 sts/7 rows; work sleeves for 16”; for cuff ribbing: 1 row in orange; 6 rows in natural; 1 row in orange; 2 rows in natural; bind off; for hem ribbing: as per cuff ribbing, but m1 ea. side on RS rows; for collar/buttonhole ribbing: p/u & k 4 sts for every 3 sts along length, 1:1 along top; work 1 row in 2x2 rib, picking up 1 st ea. side from angled edge from hem ribbing; along slope of v-neck, work short rows (mine are the y.o. kind), spacing 4 sts b/w ea. set; @ row 7, switch to orange, work buttonholes (I made 3, 3-st buttonholes); for row 8 in orange, close buttonholes; rows 9-12 are in natural and rows 12-14 are in orange; b.o. in orange

Jan 24/14: mom’s commissioning a sweater from me, which means an online order for the yarn. Of course, you can’t order yarn for a commission without seeing what other deals can be had, so I decided to look into how much it would cost to make a Dark and Stormy for myself (I made one for Tita Cynthia last year). It proved cost-prohibitive at this time, but KonaSF’s version finally gave me a suitable use for the overdyed Cascade Ecological Wool I’ve had in my stash since summer of last year. As was true of her iteration, I wanted something warm and snuggly for our notoriously harsh Canadian winters. I cast on twice yesterday, messing up the stitch count in one version and attempting to “tighten up” the back cable panel in the second version (and failing miserably, might I add). Thus, I ripped out both versions yesterday and began afresh today. So far, so good.

Jan 26/14: split the sleeves last night and completed the waist shaping. I’m going to have to post my fit notes today, if I remember.

Jan 27/14: almost ready to begin ribbing on the back. Am considering leaving the sts live and beginning sleeves two-at-a-time, in case I don’t have enough yarn to work the ribbing in orange.

Jan 29/14: I’ve just got the collar/buttonband left to work. I like the “sporty” effect that working the ribbing in natural with a stripe of orange has. In the case of the hem ribbing, I increased 1 st/side with the intent of making a mitered corner so that the orange stripe continues up the collar.

Jan 30/14: bound off today with 7g(!) of yarn remaining. It’s wet-blocking now and I still have to find appropriate buttons. I really like how this sweater turned out.

Feb 1/14: began a discussion with the Etsy seller whose buttons I think would work just amazingly well with this cardigan. I’m sure nasen would be interested to know that the button seller is in London, ON.

Feb 4/14: buttons purchased yesterday.

Feb 15/14: technically, the buttons arrived on the 10th, but I didn’t check the mail until the 11th. I sewed the buttons on that night, but with the holes for each button arranged horizontally, which isn’t resulting in a good closure for the vertical buttonholes. I’m going to have to snip and re-sew them, but I’m giving priority to mom’s sweater first.

Feb 26/14: re-sewed the buttons two nights ago, following the completion of mom’s sweater, took photos of the fit this morning. I could stand to drop a few pounds to get the front not to gap, so it’s fortunate that that’s the plan. I’m very happy with the way the hand-dyeing turned out so pleasantly tonal with this yarn and I’m also glad that I was able to use up the undyed yarn on this sweater in what I think is an appealing way. Yay, me!