May 17/14 - All the knitting is done. Sleeves are 8” long. I have mere yards of yarn left.

May 11/14 - knit sleeve for 50 rows. Then 10 rows of garter stitch, ending with purl row before CO. 27g left on the ball so sleeve is 33g.

May 3/14 - Working on sleeve #1. I decreased 2 stitches after 20 rows and will do the same every 10 rows thereafter.

After 30 rows (about 4.45”) I had 42.5g left i.e. had used 17.5g. I remembered and frogged my swatch - 11g additional. Therefore I can knit the first sleeve up to 35g (25g left on ball). I’m still thinking elbow length.

May 1/14 - Body is cast off after 12 rows of garter stitch. Length is 13 3/4” from armscye. At side seams, I decreased 2 stitches each side 5 times (every 7 rows or 1”), knitted even for 2”, then increased 2 stitches each side 2 times before starting the garter stitch border.

If I had been thinking, I would have knit to the side before starting the garter stitch, to avoid the end being at CF. However, I think I can disguise it.

I have to remember the formula for switching from stockinette to garter without changing needles or increasing the circumference of the piece - P4, P2tog, repeat. Perfect transition.

I used the Elastic Cast Off from p. 170 of the Bestor book, Cast On Bind Off - 54 Step by Step Methods. It’s easy, looks good and is quite stretchy without being bulky (like JSSBO) or causing the edge to flare. My last row before the bind off was a purl row.

After all this I have exactly 60 g of yarn left so 30 g for each sleeve.

April 20/14 - I am about 3.25” below the armscye now. I added extra rows below the raglan shaping before separating for the sleeve stitches, because I don’t like a tight underarm and the pictures look tight and my row gauge is a bit off. I already forget how many rows I added - 4 or 6? I am glad I did as the opening is perfect.

Then I did fewer bust increases (6 rounds instead of 9 for my size) so my body stitch number is 176, so between the XS and S count (since my stitch gauge is a little generous). The sizing looks about right on my duct tape double.

When joining at the V of the neck, I forgot to alternate purls to keep the garter stitch panels. Sigh. I’m getting pretty good at fixing errors a few rows down.

Instead of decreasing for more body shaping at the border of the lace panels I will shape for the waist at the sides, starting with 4 stitches at 4” below the armscye and then every inch x4, the 2” even knitting before increasing. At least that is the plan.

April 5/14 - The first bit was easy (lace panel for CB neck). Turning the corner (literally - it involves knitting the lace panel and then picking up 88 stitches along the side edge of the panel) was not.

Also, I failed to pay enough attention to notice initially that I was supposed to increase the back stitches by 50% (132 stitches became 176) in the third row after turning the corner. Had to tink back.

Then (not learning my lesson) I failed to pay enough attention to notice the “setup” row immediately thereafter. However this only required placing markers and an increase of 2 stitches, which I could jerry-rig from above in the following row. After that I read the pattern.

I puzzled over the instructions (following row - an intense part of this pattern) to “knit 1 st before next marker, m1, k2, m1” at each of 4 markers. This is to set up the increases for the raglan sleeves. I decided to interpret this as “knit up to 1 st before next marker, m1, k2, m1”. (NB that because the first marker is only 2 stitches after the lace panel ends in my size, this translated to “k1, m1, k2, m1” for that increase.)

The result is that the marker is in the middle of the raglan increase “line” of 2 stitches. I am using lifted increases.

So far, besides being caught snoozing at a critical transition point, I am managing to do what I think is intended. If I were knitting this again, based on my experience so far, I would try to make the bottom edge of the back lace band longer with short rows every so often. I think you could put these only in the 3-stitch garter area of the band, as the lace itself has more give lengthwise. As designed, the band is likely to be stretched to its max. length on the body, and in my opinion, the transition from that tight band to a big increase row is a little abrupt. You can see how the tendency of the fabric below the band is to look gathered. We shall see how it works out because fixing it would require a 100% frog.

Or the tightness could be due to my row gauge, which is a little short. I am therefore knitting a couple of extra rows before I commence the body.

March 23/14 - Swatching to get pattern gauge of 22st and 26 rows per 4 inch. On 4.0 my gauge is too tight. 4.5 produces 21st and 28 rows (washed).

I’m going to make this with short sleeves.