Gauge Swatches. I made my first gauge swatch with size 7 needles in seed stitch (20 stitches by 26 rows), then steamed the piece on both sides. That came out close to 13-stitch gauge.

I wasn’t happy with the tightness of the fabric in this bulky yarn, so knit another swatch with size 9 needles in seed stitch (18 stitches by 22 rows). After steaming, the gauge was 12 stitches and 20 rows to 4 inches.

Size. The pattern seems to run big, likely because it is worn on the diagonal and the measurements may have been taken on the horizontal. I cast on 66 stitches, to get a 22-inch cast-on edge at my 12-stitch gauge ((66 stitches / 12-stitch gauge) x 4 inches). That’s close to the 22.7 inches you would get if casting on 74 stitches for a medium with a 13-stitch gauge.

Back and Front. I reached the last stitch of the cast-on at row 55. I knit 40 rows of seed stirch to reach the neckline of the back.

The rectangular portion of the back starts on a wrong side row and ends with a right side row. The rectangular portion of the front starts with a wrong side row and ends with a wrong side row, so I knit 41 rows before beginning short row section of the front. I knit 56 rows to get to the end of the short rows for the front.

Short Rows. I used wrap & turns for my short rows. While binding off the bottom of the front (with suspended bind-off…see below), I realized that I probably didn’t need to slip one with yarn in front on the wrong side short rows, but instead should have purled that stitch in the seed stitch pattern. The same would have been true for the wrong side rows in the short row section of the back. These are all interior stitches. Slipping with yarn in front after wrapping the adjacent stitch “groups” those stitches together and probably contributes to the holes everyone is worried about. Slipping those stitches also adds to a bit of confusion when binding off in seed stitch, as the stitch hasn’t been worked.

Neck Opening. I multiplied the 35 stitches in the 13-stitch gauge by 0.923 (12/13) to get 32 stitches. That would give a top open edge of about 10.67 inches.

However, I wanted to reduce the neck opening slightly to fit my narrow shoulders. I bound off 30 stitches, to give a top edge of 10 inches, and a neck opening of 10.78 inches (on the diagonal). That’s about an inch shorter than the 11.7 inches I would have gotten with 32 stitches.

I just re-read the Comments this morning and noticed for the first time that you only transfer the remaining stitch after the bind-off to the crochet hook, in preparation for using the crochet cast-on to add back those stitches plus one. Somehow, reading the pattern and the Comments earlier, I read too fast and thought all the remaining stitches were going on the crochet hook, which didn’t make sense. Sigh!!

I used the suspended bind-off after watching Yay for Yarn’s video. She did a beautiful job explaining how to bind off in pattern with this looser than normal bind-off.

Blocking. I pinned my piece out to the dimensions specified for my size and am happy to report that my calculations seem to be on target. I steam pressed rather than wet-blocking, given the tendency of alpaca to relax significantly when soaked.

Seaming. I watched 10rowsaday’s video on seaming slip-stitched edges. She did a beautiful job of explaining this seaming method.

When I added the side seam I started 8 inches from the top and seamed for 4 inches. So the bottom opening is 6-1/2 inches.

Sleeve Cap. I watched Elizabeth Smith’s video on how to pick up stitches on a cast on edge.

My cast-on and bind-off edges were each 66 stitches wide and turned out to be 24” each. So I’m picking up 33 stitches along the front and the back, plus the stitch at the seam, for a total of 67 stitches. To get a 10-1/2 inch length, I’ll need to knit 52-53 rows with my 5 rows to the inch gauge. So I should be able to follow the short row directions as written, starting with a first row of 15 stitches.

I’m also going to forego slipping one at the beginning of the interior short rows as I’m wrapping stitches.

I should have gone with my original calculations and picked up 36 stitches on either side of the seam. That would have brought the sleeve seam to 12 inches on each side, given my gauge. As it is, the sleeve is only 11” long long where it joins the front and the back. I also suspect that those holes which I eliminated would have served to “loosen up” the sleeve seam.

Yarn Usage. The first skein was only 93 grams. The second was 100 grams and I used 53 grams of it to finish the large trapezoid. I had 15 grams left of the second skein when I finished the cap sleeve.