Blocked, buttons on, all done! This was the most stressful project I’ve ever taken on -- so much went wrong, so much went right, lots of frogging, but it turned out well. I am only slightly disappointed with the way the armholes fit me, kind of wonky and strange, but that’s a top-down raglan for me. I’m glad I made it using that method, anyway. Oh, and the cables are not at all like I’d hoped, but it’s too late to change them now. Oh well!

Jan-16-10: THE KNITTING IS DONE! I just bound off the second sleeve, like, two minutes ago. Now I just need to sew up the pockets, underarms, and add buttons, and wash and block it. Which comes first, the buttons or the blocking? I’ll have to decide.

While I reeeally like this yarn, especially knit up, knitting with it took a toll on my right hand. First, it hurt my index finger, but that got better. Then it hurt my ring finger, which also improved. Now, I have a big old callus on my middle finger, which is also my writing callus, but it is now larger from knitting. I think this is all because the yarn is so tightly spun, and sort of rough to knit with. But the fabric it makes is beautiful.

This sweater was knit up using EXACTLY 4 skeins of yarn. I only needed a little from a fifth skein to make the pockets. This sweater is a record (for me) for most yardage used in one project, and was my smallest gauged project (until my Charcoal Cardi).

Jan-12-10: Finished the first sleeve yesterday! I only had one size 4 circular needle, but needed to do sleeve ribbing, so I had to learn Magic Loop. It’s easy and convenient, but when I’m doing it, my posture and knitting style gets weird, and I go slower, and my right arm gets sore. Hmm, is that normal? So, I do not really enjoy doing it, but it’s better than using dpns.

Jan-08-10: I. Finished. Both. Button bands. Today. That is, started and finished, a total of 6,251 stitches (not counting the ones I frogged, like when the buttonholes did NOT work). All this would not have been possible without the snow day! Now I’m wiped out. But hey, only the sleeves are left, plus the finishing. Falls over and immediately conks out

Jan-06-10: The body is finished! That includes the pockets (made of the wrong-devil-dye-lot yarn). All I have left are the button bands and the sleeves, in that order. These should go fairly quickly, compared to the body, but with my new time constraints (SCHOOL), they might take just as long. This has been the most stressful, problem-prone project I’ve ever done, and while it’s sometimes been a headache, it’s turning out well.

Doing it as a top-down raglan, which I haven’t done since last November.