5/12/10 - Hoo boy, I forgot how much I hated to knit 1x1 rib. It’s the only time I really regret knitting English style. That’s gotta be why I’ve been working on this for 3 days and only have 11 rows knit…

5/29/10 - Woohoo! The first section is finally done! It’s not the entire bodice, so I still have more 1x1 rib…but I’m at the point where I’m about to split out for the sleeves. My only real stumbling block was the next to last round, the final increase round. Something seemed off when I finished it…and then I realized that somehow I’d turned the bodice inside out and knit the wrong direction. (Insert profanity here.) I couldn’t just keep going, because not only would that mean a hole at the beginning of the round, the sections between the markers had an uneven number of stitches so it wasn’t going to work with the pattern. And since it was the last increase row, that meant over 200 stitches to tink. In 1x1 rib. (Insert more profanity.)

Later - Well, I wondered whether I should be sensible and go to bed before tackling the sleeves, especially since it was after midnight. Instead, I was stubborn and pushed out. Decision FAIL.

I figured out the bind off for the sleeve pretty quickly, but I misread it and skipped the first k3tog to form the cap sleeve. Also, I bound off really loosely because I’m stressing the sleeve openings being large enough, so instead of the nice smooth curve for the cap sleeve, I’ve got a wide and waving opening…which still might not be big enough. But I pushed on, casting on the underarm sleeves and knitting across one side…and then I realized I’d twisted those cast on stitches when I joined the 2 sides. So, I tinked back to the cast on removed it, and am leaving it for now. I’m going pin the front and back sides together and try the top on Lexie. If the sleeves are as shallow and tight as I fear, I’m going to consider adding some ribbing before joining again.

5/29/10, take 2 - Now that I’ve had some sleep and my model is awake, I was able to pin together the sides at the armpit and try the top on her. The armholes were much too shallow to be comfortable, although it did fit because of the 1x1 ribbing. I think the problem is that while I got the stitch gauge, my row gauge is probably too small. So I’m going to add a couple rows knit flat to the front and back before I join to knit in the round, in order to add some depth to the armholes.