Finally, a sweater from my own handspun! I’ve got over 2000 yards of this fingering to sport weight - should be plenty. The greys in the yarn remind me of ripples of lava, especially when the skeins are laying out in a row.

I cast on in Phoenix on our way to the Big Island where I saw lots of evidence of Pele’s power.

11/26 - casting off the bottom edge of the body. I extended the length. I did 4 of the decreases described in the pattern and then did 3 increase rows, one every 10 rows after the last decrease. A couple more rows of stockinette, then 3 garter ridges. At first it wanted to curl tremendously, but a good steaming seems to have settled that right down. The yarn is very sproingy.

12/14 - actually, the edge kept flipping, so I ripped the garter and then reknit with a smaller needle. Now the steaming seems to work great.

For the sleeves, I picked up an additional stitch in the corners of the armscye (total of 14 picked up), then did the decreases as directed for my size except that I did them for the entire length of the sleeve, ending with 50 stitches at the cuff. One more set of decreases in the garter ridging matching the lower band, again the lower band on smaller needles.

12/18 - for the bands, I picked up and knit from the front side in the row to stitch ratio as pick up 3, skip 1, pick up 2, skip 1, pick up 2, skip 1. I picked an additional stitch up in the corner at the neck. I knit my way back, then on every right side row, did an increase to each side of the corner pickup which I’d marked. On the last right side row, I decreased once at the inflection point on the front neck, once at each raglan line, and twice across the back, evenly spaced. The front edges wanted to curl, but steam blocking has totally resolved this. Back neck still wants to flip out a bit but shouldn’t be an issue when wearing. I am strongly considering adding a grosgrain ribbon around the front and neck edge. Then button(s).

1/3/10 - Finished! I did add a grosgrain ribbon and learned that it would be wise to pin the ribbon to avoid bunching (and tearing it out and resewing it) and to match the length of the ribbons on either front to avoid ending up with uneven front edges (and ripping it out again and resewing it). Also - though I am happy enough with the 5/8” ribbon on the neck, I think a narrower ribbon around the neck would have lain more smoothly around the curves so would go that route in the future, but I love the 5/8” ribbons on the front edges.

The pattern was a very clearly written, error-free pattern - a joy to knit.