Started spinning: July 4.
Finished spinning: July 23.

Started knitting: August 25.
Finished knitting and EVERYTHING - including buttons and blocking: September 23.

This is some kind of personal record - the last sweater I knit took me exactly ONE YEAR to finish, and that was with millspun yarn. Pretty excited about this one!

Spinning some stashed fibers from two different clubs: Spunky Eclectic Birds ‘n’ Berries targhee and a SCF/HY collaboration, Wide Awake polwarth. I’m spinning the SE end to end and splitting the SCF/HY lengthwise once.

Potentially going to make some sort of raglan cardi, like the Effortless Cardigan, or something where the button band is offset. Considering steeking to keep the colors flowing and not pooling too much. Will probably also alternate balls to the armholes for the same reason.

First hank: 446 yards
I did not do a great job with matching the singles weight-wise. I have a significant amount of the SE left on the first bobbin.

Finished yardage - 1670! It’s LOVELY! Using bits and pieces of different sweaters I like, I’m going to try to make my own one-of-a-kind sweater. Inspiration patterns: Golden Wheat, Tappan Zee, King of Confidence, and raglan sweaters of the world.

Started the actual knitting 8/23/12. Knitting a top-down sweater, with even yoke increases (no raglan seams). Started with about 6 or so inches of straight garter stitch for a floppy collar. Included button holes on the collar for the option of turtlenecking it. The photo that has the notebook in the corner shows the WIP with the collar folded over. Will eventually have to figure out the sleeves/armholes - since I want this to be assymetrical, it’ll tax my brain a little more than just evenly marking for that break.

Split for the cardi opening and put the sleeve stitches on spare yarn. I am currently feeling short sleeves for this, so might just pick up those stitches and do a few rows of garter. I’ve already started thinking about buttons and have bought a few long-sleeve tees to wear under this cardi.

DONE DONE DONE!
I used all but the first JUMBO hank, so 1224 yards. I ended up with 21 button holes, but had only 18 vintage buttons, so I’m going to probably leave the bottom 3 button holes unused (maybe needlefelt them a bit). The optional turtleneck is fabulous, but I sewed the buttons on the wrong side for that. No pictures of it on, but I hope to have a photo shoot soon.

Blocking: I gave the neck a good stretch in both directions just to give it some flop-itude. Nothing says spoil sport quite like a stiff neck, you know what I’m saying? I also tried to match the ridges on the button bands, as well as any stitch change. This seems very basic, but it’s something I had not necessarily done correctly before (when blocking instructions are just “block to desired size/shape” you can see how a less experienced knitter might block something less sweater-y and more amoeba-y).

Things I would change -
fewer increases on the yoke
more horizontal button placement (lemme tell ya, there is one button smack dab in the middle of my lemon slip, if you know what I’m saying)