before blocking US 4 - 26sts, 28rows over moons. 27sts over small stars

1/24: Separated for the armholes a couple days ago. I still haven’t tried this thing on yet… It’s not my favorite style of colorwork, with lots of carrying long floats and rows with almost no contrast color.

2/22: Finished the body earlier this week. It’s looser in the body than I anticipated. I decided on 1x1 ribbing for the bottom because I like that better than 3x1. My row gauge was a little longer, so I ended a few rows before the end of the last chart and didn’t do any plain rounds and fewer ribbing rounds.
I’ve started the first sleeve. After the top of the sleeves, I’ve started knitting back and forth so I can do the sleeve chart in intarsia instead of in the technique called for in the pattern. I anticipate redoing the top of the sweater because of the ruching effect that is happening at the neck. I’ll probably cut the top off and work back up.

4/25: This sweater was quite the production! I started doing the sleeves in intarsia. It looked incredibly sloppy. So I ripped it out and reknit it in plain stockinette. Much simpler. Then I duplicate stitched the design onto the sleeves, after trying it on my swatch first. I think that turned out really well!
So then the collar. I slipped a small needle through one round of knitting, just before the colorwork. Then I clipped a stitch and unpicked the top of the sweater away from the yoke. This was more difficult than it should have been. I think I tried to do it in the short row section. Then I started working upwards. I kind of just winged it. I put most of the decreases in the back neck, though I did K2, K2tog all the way around for the most part. There were some extra short rows in the back with additional decreases (K1, K2tog ), then even K2tog for part of the neck. Then 9 rounds of 1x1 ribbing. Still puckers a bit at the back, so probably I shouldn’t have decreased quite so much in one place. I probably could have spread out a few more decreases in another place. I could still go back…

4/26: Thoughts after blocking. It’s a little looser than I intended, but generally don’t mind the shape. There is still slight pucker at the back. Or it’s more obvious because I decreased the row right above color blips. The front neckline is a little high. Generally happy with it, but quite the ordeal.