ASJ Leaps and Bounds

Two things to start.

First: I have got to get better about blogging more regularly! When I don't I feel the need to catch up on all that I've missed and that way lies madness and procrastination.

Second: Seriously? I haven't blogged since I swapped the Millais for the Silky Wool XL? That was, like, 116 rows ago. Ok, I checked and it was also almost two weeks ago, which is a lot of knitting time when you are practicing project monogamy and using chunky (3.5 sts/inch) yarn.

But it also brings us back to my first point.

No Issues
Things have been moving along smoothly with my ASJ since I made the yarn swap. Perhaps that is why I haven't been blogging. Who among us would not rather be knitting instead of writing about knitting?

There was one minor moment of ennui after I had increased back up to my original cast on stitch count and put the end stitches on holders. I thought it was going to be time to move on to the center flap, but then re-read the pattern and saw I had to continue increasing.

I had a moment of "uh-oh, that's a lot of garter stitch" but the color changes helped pull me through. And, really, it's just mindless garter stitch. Talk about auto-pilot knitting.

I did waffle a bit over the wording in the pattern at this point. It says to continue working the increases at A & B until you reach the next target number. For some reason I suddenly decided it meant to work only one increase. Fortunately I realized that would be silly before I did any damage. Of course you need to continue making two increases. The outside edge needs to grow because it's making the fronts of the cardigan.

Armed for Trouble
When the sweater was a decent size, probably the size in the top photo, I could no longer stand the suspense and had to try it on.

I used locking stitch markers to clip the arm seams shut and tried it on. At that point it reached my waist. This helped me decide how much longer I had to knit the center flap (I'm aiming for around 23"). The body is going to fit with a nice amount of ease. Sure the fronts were a bit shy at this point, but I'll be adding to them later.

The arms, however, are a different story. They are a bit snug. There are directions in the pattern for increasing the armhole depth, but I didn't follow them because I'm small. This, of course, was ignoring the fact that I have pudgy upper arms. sigh.

Since it was too late to turn back, I decided to jury-rig it. I debated knitting a narrow strip to sew into the sweater, but that would have been an extra seam to worry about. And I wasn't sure what color to use.

Then it suddenly occurred to me I could just pick up along the case on edge and knit the flap from there. I was debating over color still when I realized if I use the Noro Kogarashi I had started with no one would every know.

I'm not sure what this will do to the neck opening. It might make it hang low in the back or it could balance out and be fine. As soon as I was done and laying in bed I realized I should probably have just picked up along the entire length rather than just along the arms, but by then I'd already cut the yarn so I wasn't going to start changing things.

Depleting Resources
Which basically brings us up to date on my progress.

Oops, I told myself I'd break it all up into smaller posts. Oh well. Danger of falling behind.

At this point the length is about 22" or 23". I have used up all the Sandstone, the denim blue Mist, and the purple Millais. The turquoise Mist and the dark green Millais are not long for this world.

Therefore I've put the bottom edge on a holder and jumped to the sleeves.

As it stands the sleeves are only elbow length. Kind of goofy on a jacket that is butt length. Since I don't want to end up with single color sleeves I'm going to knit the 10" needed to get them to my wrists in order to maximize the stripe possibilities then return to the body. The goal is to use up as much of the yarn as possible since I don't want wee scraps laying around.

If I start running out of yarn after knitting the sleeves it will be an easy matter to harvest some of the yarn from the body.