After several tries, finally found Wendy Bernard’s provisional cast on and really prefer it. The cables across the tiny collar piece are fiddly and annoying and I have ripped back more times than I can count. Life lines will be employed from here on out. Tomorrow, I knit til it hurts to knit anymore! (7/4).
7/12: one skein down. I am 1.5 cable chart repeats away from dividing for the sleeves.
7/27: Finished binding off the body and started working on the first sleeve. I picked up a total of 14 sts for the underarms and on the second around began decreasing on each side of the false seam. I decreased every 8 rounds until 80 sts, then decreased every 6 rounds until 74 sts. Then I switched to the smaller needle for the cuffs and decreased on the first round of k2p2 and worked k2p2 for 6 rounds.
7/30: Finished the first sleeve (see details above). Picked up stitches for second sleeve. Hope to finish tonight or early tomorrow so that I can get some light blocking in.
Sleeves are 3/4 instead of full length in order to meet the deadline for camp loopy. Not sure if I will rip back to re-work the sleeves after or not. I like the cable detail, but the length is actually pretty good for me, since I tend to pull my sleeves up and stretch them out anyway.
7/31: Finished the sweater-- BO the last stitches with 2 minutes to spare! In the morning, I’ll weave in ends and post better pictures here and to the Loopy Ewe Gallery.
In the end, mods: I started with the 38” size and increased to between the 38” and 42”. I decreased under the bust to get back to the 38” size. For the sleeves, in order to meet the deadline, I left off the cable detail and knit to just past the elbow. I think this length works really well for me both practically and aesthetically and I think I’ll leave them that way :)
The yarn is splitty as all get out. We’ll have to see how I feel about it after I have blocked it, though.