Planned to be O.W.L. to start January 2012.

1/4 - OWL approved, casting on!

1/10 - finished the 20 rows of ribbing for the bottom of the sweater. I tried to average at least three rounds per day to keep my remaining count manageable. (gotta love spreadsheets!)

Next comes the colorwork. I’m happy to resume stockinette, but I will need to monitor my tension to make sure the carried color doesn’t get pulled too tightly. It doesn’t appear to be the problem it has been on socks in the past. I guess the larger size of the overall piece helps a lot.

1/11 Completed the first chart set. Since I’m knitting the average length, I knit from rows 17 to 30 of chart 1. Moving to the blues. It’s going to get so pretty! The best part about this is watching the picture come together, which just pushes me to knit “one more round.” If only I didn’t have so many other projects to work on too!

1/20 Reached the 30% mark at row 25 on chart 2. Decreases for the waist shaping have begun. The colors are so pretty!

1/21 Finished Chart 2, continuing the waist decreases.

1/25 Reached the 40% mark, and halfway through the Chart 1 repeat. I’d like to get to Chart 3 before the weekend, but that may be pushing it, as that’s more than four rounds per day. After completing the last segment of Sky Blue, I realized I had picked up Cornmeal instead of Marsala. I guess for this segment I’ll be adjusting the colors…makes it custom! ;-) The colors still work well together, so it’s not worth ripping back.

2/13 - Finished Chart 1 to move on to Chart 3. This month is a slower-progress time, but I’m pretty confident I can make it to the 50% mark before month-end. :-D

2/21 - Hit the 50% mark with time to spare!

2/29 - I’ve been doing well knitting 4-5 rounds a day, but today I finished Chart 3 and started on the neck and armscye decreases. That’s when it started to get exciting…working on the steek section!

3/4 - finished the partial Chart 1 that follows Chart 3. It’s challenging to keep track of which rounds decrease the arms vs. the neck, but my spreadsheet helps.

3/11 - finished the Chart 2 repeat and have completed the armscye decreases. I have just over 50 rounds left to go in the colorwork.

3/13 - finished Chart 1 repeat; starting on the final chart for the colorwork. Three more neckline decreases and I will move to the shoulder shaping. Wow - I may start cutting the steeks this weekend!!

3/18 - Eek! The steeking has begun! I started with the neckline so I could free up the stitch-holding needle for another project.

3/28 - Finished the neck, and steeked the first armscye.

3/29 - Finished the first armscye and prepped to steek its mate

3/30 - Woot! It’s done! It fits quite nicely. I’m blocking it to stretch the back out a bit, but the rest of it is spot on. Easter will be a little extra-joyful for my vest of many colors…

Colors used and the quantity of each:
Oyster heather - 33g
Cornmeal - 41g
Sweet Potato - 23g
Marsala - 36g
Sky Blue - 27g
Calypso heather - 23g
Marine heather - 24g
Navy - 25g
Clematis heather - 48g