The cold is coming downunder! I’m getting ready for the big NZ freeze with a cosy chocolate knit.

Using beautiful BFL dyed by me (of course alternating skeins) and enjoying myself immensely.

Haven’t set in sleeves for ages … kind of looking forward to the challenge …

The sleeves were a killer and took forever. I added an inch to the length so they were lovely and long over my hand.

I picked up three out of four stitches around the band and ended up with about 15 too many. I wasn’t too worried because it still looked ok and I wondered if my neck was slightly long anyway. Can’t remember if I added length to the body …. I suppose I could measure it …

Anyway, the buttonholes were a mystery to me. I did not understand the instructions at all and ended up knitting them differently. Firstly I spread them slightly further apart to account for my increased number of stitches and I also knitted them over 4 stitches instead of three because three looked too small. I used the “improved horizontal buttonhole” from The Principles of Knitting book. It was fairly convoluted but not tricky and produces a very neat buttonhole.

Fnished finished finished! Buttons on and ready for winter. Photos will come soon …