Why oh why does it seems like sleeves take forever? The back flew by, even with the couple of minor frogs I had to execute. If you’re not a knitter, a sentence reading “frogs I had to execute” could sound so sinister… For any laypeople or knitters assimilating new jargon, I mean that I had to rip out some of my knitting. “Frogging” is ripping out, “tinking” is un-knitting (and “tink” is “knit” backwards). I hardly ever tink unless it’s just one row, or lace. It’s just too slow.

Are you all sick of large swaths of stockinette yet?

Ok, back to the sleeves. They’re going, going. I added more stitches than I had originally factored in, because casting on 32 like I’d planned looked comically small. This means I will have to amend my sleeve cap shaping a bit, but I have faith it will all work out in the end.

I suppose I’m going to have to block and seam parts of this baby before I pick up and do the front band and the collar. Poor Matt will probably not get to wear this at all until next fall. I can’t wait to finish it, just to see how it looks on him and to make sure it’s actually going to fit him. On my previous post showing the fronts and the back-in-progress, I chuckled because several people mistook the fronts for sleeves or the whole thing for a baby sweater.

I’m really eager to block it, to prove to myself that the math is indeed going to work. If the fronts do end up too skinny, I can always add a little extra width to the button band to make up the difference.

As extra incentive, I’m going to cast on a Kenzo when I’m done!!! I think the gobs of amazing cables will keep my brain interested while I work with another 1200 yards of this same color. I will probably take my time with that baby, since she definitely won’t be worn until fall and Arkansas weather will soon grow too hot for me to want to work with worsted weight wool. I’m determined to have an Awkward Family Photo op with the matching colored family sweaters.

I’m still plugging away on Matt’s sweater. It served as a faithful companion for breaks during my week of comprehensive exams.

I’ve never designed a sweater before and part of this process is just being ok with ripping and reknitting. Maybe that’s just me, and other people can get it right from the start, but sometimes I find it hard to conceptualize how parts of the sweater will look without knitting it. I think once I hit that 10,000 hour mark and become an expert (according to Malcom Gladwell), I’ll be able to better visualize exactly what all the written instructions end up looking like in a 3-dimensional fashion. I know those front pieces look super skinny, but they are rolling in a lot right now before blocking.

I’ve also never even knitted a sweater for a man, so my understanding of appropriate-sized arm holes, etc. is limited. I was tempted to just use another pattern as a template and insert the design I wanted to use, but it seemed like a better learning exercise to start from scratch. Matt said that he wanted armholes with little ease. My initial measurements and attempt seemed to be too short, though I didn’t wet block it to be sure. I ended up ripping back a little and adding a couple of inches. I also changed the neckline decreases when it became they seemed to drastic at the beginning.

As noted in this post by Katie, I also totally understand why people charge six dollars (or more) for sweater patterns. There is a lot of time that goes into knitting an average sweater. When you add in the fact that you’re probably reknitting parts of it a couple of times, and have to figure out the math on a variety of sizes, it’s good to get a little compensation. I used to hate paying for knitting patterns and would try to make as many free ones as possible, but when I started designing I really began to appreciate the time an effort that goes into making patterns. And really, I throw down money on so much extraneous stuff (coffee, random sweet treats, eating out more than I should–ok, so mostly things I eat and drink) that buying a knitting pattern here and there is not such a big deal. Plus, sometimes for free patterns there might be less support when you come across an issue.

I am looking at other sweater patterns to see what kind of sizing the do for men’s sweaters, because if I write up this pattern I want to make sizes that work for a variety of people. There is also this handy guide from the Craft Yarn Council that I just found. Matt falls mostly into the medium size on this chart, and after looking it over, I feel pretty good that the sweater is going to measure up.

I have a few little projects for other people that I should also be working on…but I can’t resist this sweater! I want to see it come together. Out of 4 active projects, and 3 others that will be started soon, none of them are for me! I’m not disturbed by this, but I don’t think I’ve ever been this altruistic before!