My daughter is allergic to animal fiber, so I had to switch yarns. After trying different weights and combination of yarns and getting something too loose, too bulky, or just wrong, I finally decided to reduce the number of cast-on stitches to 34 and use two strands of Heartland for the sleeve portion. Since I was making modifications, my daughter asked me to make the sleeve longer and include a thumb-hole (sure, why not…). I’ll switch to the Hometown yarn in the scarf portion.

1/18 - Finished the first sleeve. It is a total of 80 rows: first 14 rows in the round; next 8 flat for the thumb hole; 58 rows in the round, wrist to elbow. She has long arms, so I knit it a bit longer than the pattern specified. Next I need to check the gauge for the scarf portion to determine the right combination of yarns.

1/19 Well, the Hometown yarn was way too thick. I’m going to try continuing with the doubled Heartland with the larger needle size and see if I like the drape. Nothing like reinventing the wheel…

1/25 The transition from size 10.5 needles to 17 was more difficult than I anticipated. One reason is that I am knitting the sleeve in the round--going from round to flat knitting while changing needle size was a P.I.T.A. I ended up frogging to my lifeline and knitting two plain rows in the larger needles before starting the linen stitch.