Summary (I’ve got way too much detail below!) -
This was a fun knit. Ingenious pattern construction. I do wish the pattern gave a little more measurement info for the garter band. The yarn was nice to work with once you got used to the “stickiness” of it. My biggest complaint was that even tho I had all the same lot #, the colors were not the same in all the skeins. Muddied in some, bright in others. If I were to do another project with a lot of this yarn, I would definitely put up all the yarn into cakes before I started and figure out the order of use before casting on a single stitch. But it made a really lightweight sweater. I think I will love wearing it. But I can tell I need a pin or something to hold the front closed, I don’t like it hanging open. And I’m not really thrilled with the little stripes of color on the front garter bands, they seem to draw the eye right to them instead of the rest of the sweater. Maybe it’s just me, b/c I don’t like them!

3.6.11 - Started! Back seems really narrow, but I’m getting gauge, so will carry on.

3.9.11 - Set aside to work on chemo caps for my mom’s friend. Back section done & waiting.

3.18.11 - Back at it today. I’m using a size 6 needle for the garter bands since I read so much about them being floppy, but then it seemed so short. It was 29” long after the 240 garter rows, went to 32” long (based on help from a couple Ravelers who have made this project and measured theirs for me) and 264 garter rows. Will compensate on decreases after picking up stitches. Hope this works.

3.19.11 - OK, I’m at the lovely giant jock strap stage!! One thing I would highly recommend when attaching the garter band to the back bottom and then top - after doing the SSK that joins the band to the back, you turn and the directions say to knit your stitches across. If you slip the first stitch as if to purl with yarn in front, then knit the rest of the row, it will leave a very nice chain edge where the join is. I am doing the alternate slip stitch garter band, but I think this would look lovely on the plain garter band too. I’ve included a close up pix of my left bottom edge. I also used a garter stitch Kitchener to join rather than the 3nbo. Nope, didn’t like, undid and did 3nbo.

On decrease round after picking up stitches (216 sts total instead of pattern amount of 204), I did the (k4,k2tog) around as directed. Down to 180.

3.20.11 - Should have done this before starting project at all, but I’m not too experienced at the long color run yarn, but I pulled out each skein, piling up each color segment so I would hopefully find a pattern. Based on the back that was already done and the beginning of the first sleeve, I thought I had the color repeats figured out, but as I pulled out the remaining 5 skeins (1 at a time!), I found no color repeat pattern that I recognized. So I wrote down what each one appeared to be and then organized the skeins in the order I think I want to use them and will just go with it. I won’t have matching sleeves, but they can be fraternal twins, I’m ok with that. I am enjoying this yarn. And I was afraid of how it would wind up after pulling out like I did, b/c the yarn is a bit “sticky”, but it did fine. Whew.

Got to the 2nd skein on first sleeve today, and the 2nd big set of decreases. Did the (K3,k2tog) around as directed, down to 128 sts, then did every other round normal decreases 14 times instead of 10 times, so that got me down to 100 sts and back to pattern stitch numbers.

Found a better way to see my color repeats by taking my cakes of yarn and pushing up from the middle and creating kind of a “tornado” of yarn, kept pushing until I could see colors easily. Pic posted of 4 “tornadoes”. I discovered that even tho the color repeat was the same after all, the colors themselves were not the same, even tho all the same color lot. They kinda of muddied up in a lot of the skeins. Frustrating. Ended up going out and buying one more skein that matches more closely the skein that started the first sleeve. Will use that to start the 2nd sleeve and do the best I can from there. Finished first sleeve about 3.25.11. Set aside to work on a couple more chemo caps and then a vacation over spring break too, will work on something more portable on vacation.

4.22.11 - Finally back at it! :-)
4.25.11 - Done! Yaay!! Did a bunch of back joins in order to keep my colors somewhat similar to first sleeve. A bunch of leftover yarn, a variety of lengths, almost 2 skeins worth, probably will become hats so the joins won’t show.

Washed & Blocked Details:
SPI - 4
RPI - 6
Bottom edge width - 17.5”
Width 9” up from bottom edge - 23” (where sleeves start)
Height from back neck - 23.5”
Cuff to cuff - 61”
Sleeve length (from where side curves stop) - 17”
Sleeve depth (from where side curves stop) - 11.5”
Cuff width - 3.5”
Garter band all the way around - 88”
Curved garter band (not including neck or bottom) - 32” on each front.
Total weight - 360 grams (12.55 oz)