I was wrong. I did it in less than 24 hours.

It started out like this:

Not bad, but the neck is a little wonky and wide, and it just looks, well, odd. So, he asked me to fix it. I was totally ok with that, since it was the first thing I had designed, and I really wanted it to be nice-looking and, you know, wearable.

We talked about it, and we decided on making it a turtleneck. I figured I would rip back to before I started the short rows that I did across the back of the neck, and start again. I ended up holding about 18 stitches in the center front, and working short rows around the back from there, continuing the raglan decreases at the same time. Once I got it to a place I liked, I had him put it on to check the neckline, and then I started the ribbing for the turtleneck. After knitting during yesterday’s Olympics, I had him check the length of the neck, and he decreed it satisfactory. So, as of about 8:30 last night, my second event was completed.

And here he is, in his new, improved sweater.
And I swear, he is the only human being I know who decides that it is a good idea to shave his head when the weather turns COLD. He’s silly like that.

By the way, thank you all for your lovely compliments about my sweater – I am really thrilled with how it came out, and I really enjoyed working on it. I have some yarn left over, so I think I might make a scarf to go with it.

So, now my decision is this: do I start a third project, or do I just accept that I completed my Olympic challenge and be happy about it?

Things I learned on this sweater:
1. I really love lace. Way more than I even thought I did.
2. I really hate weaving in ends. I think I will avoid stripes in the future.
3. Seaming is kind of fun, unless you are dealing with fluffy fuzzy sparkly yarns. Then, it’s kind of annoying.
4. Stripes, while making for lots of ends to weave, give very good checkpoints for seaming.

The combination of #2 and #3 makes me think that when I do the Hodgepodge sweater, I may re-work the pattern to be done in the round to cut down on both the number of ends to weave and the seaming with fuzzy yarn.

As usual, I bought some extra of the yarn, because I am completely paranoid about running out. So, I have leftovers! I might make a scarf out of it, since I really do like the lace pattern from the sweater. And I think it would be fun to have a scarf to wear with it – just a little something extra at the neck.

As I was taking pictures and winding up the leftovers, Rowena came over to check it out. I think she likes the sparkly yarn, don’t you? She’s such a silly kitty.

So – now the plan is to fix Kris’s sweater and turn it into a turtleneck. I just have to figure out how to pick up stitches and work them so that the twisted ribbing shows the right way when he folds the turtleneck over.

ETA: Hubby is home from work, so here it is being modeled.
Oh, and yes I am standing in the exact same backyard that I posted pictures of last Saturday. Everything melted!

Anyway, I finished knitting my second sleeve last night while watching the very cute American men moguls skiers. Seriously – if I had known skiers were that hot, I might have considered trying it.

So, here we are as of today:
We have a front, a back, and two sleeves! All that is left is to assemble the sweater and do the neck edging (which I think is just pick up stitches and then immediately bind them off), and then a light blocking.

I am still a little nervous about the assembly using the Patons Lacette. The mohair in it tends to make it a little grabby, and since I’m not the world’s fastest hand stitcher, it may take me a while to get this thing together. Plus, this will be the first time I have done set-in sleeves. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

If all goes really well today and tomorrow, I might even be able to wear this to see Bebe Neuwirth tomorrow night, which I had said in my original post about deciding to make this sweater, before I realized that I was off on the dates involved! Too weird.

Oh – and check out the Olympics countdown timer I snagged from the Yarn Harlot. (Over there – in the sidebar) Isn’t it fun?

If I do finish early (which is looking like it might happen, but I am not counting on it), I am trying to decide what I want to do as a second “event” for the Olympics. I might challenge myself to pick up Kris’s sweater and fix it. He and I decided that the neckline just wasn’t working, so I need to rip that back, and he asked if I could possibly re-do it as a turtleneck. So, that is going to be my next challenge – a second KO event if I finish the sweater early, otherwise just a personal challenge to get it finished before it is too warm for him to wear it.

Um…yeah. I’ve done one more repeat of the lace on the front of the sweater.

But I have an excuse for the lack of knitterly dedication – I got bitten by the baking bug today, and I made three batches of biscotti!

See:
(Dark chocolate, dried cherries, walnuts, and coconut on the left, white chocolate, dried pineapple, mango and papaya, and macadamia nuts in the middle, and semi-sweet chocolate, dried cranberries, and almonds on the right)

The plan is to get some more knitting done tonight before I go to bed (maybe the third lace repeat), and then hopefully finish the front of the sweater tomorrow and get the first sleeve started. I’ve still got lots of time left, but I don’t want to get overconfident, because I am figuring that the seaming is going to be interesting with the Lacette.

This is my cast on edge – I cast on with the Glittallic, and then switched to the Lacette for the first two rows of the lace pattern. It looks like this: (Sorry, that’s kind of blurry)

At the end of each repeat of the lace are 4 rows of the Glittallic in garter stitch. It looks like this: (Again with the blurry. Ugh)

When I looked at the pattern, I realized that I was supposed to cast on with the Glittallic and then knit 3 rows with it before starting the lace to make the bottom look like the stripes. I was grumpy for a moment, and then made an executive decision to leave it (No WAY was I frogging everything. The Lacette is a bitch to frog). I’m just going to duplicate my mistake on the front and the sleeves. Problem solved.

I think I am going to block the back as soon as I have it finished, because I am beginning to rethink my size choice. I think I maybe should have gone with one size smaller. I’ll measure the back once it is blocked, and if it is running at all big, I may re-do it and make it a size smaller (which might also require an AC Moore run for some extra just-in-case yarn). I’m holding off on that decision until I can measure it, though. Of course, if I do start over, at least I can correct the mistake with the Glittallic. =)

Edited to Add: Just finished the back and laid it out. I think it is going to be fine size-wise, so no need to start over. Yay!

So, at 2:00 this afternoon, I sat down with my yarn and my needles, and asked hubby to grab the camera.

And wow, what an odd expression I have on my face. Of course, it was nothing compared to the look on my face a few minutes later, when I realized that I had used the WRONG YARN (the Silverlash) when casting on. Ribbit…ribbit…ribbit.
So…

We cast on again with the Glittalic – the correct yarn (although, still a weird expression). *sigh* I changed to the MC yarn (the Lacette), worked the first four rows of my lace pattern, and then realized that I was supposed to have changed yarns to the Silverlash after the first two rows. Ribbit…ribbit…ribbit.

Happily, once I got past those first obstacles, I made it through the first full repeat of the lace pattern on the back of the sweater.

So, here’s to more progress, and less frogging going forward!

(Oh, and the big wooden thing on the wall is a crokinole board. It’s a game that we have gotten hooked on via some of Kris’s Penn State friends, and I bought him the board for our 3rd anniversary back in 2001.)

I made my usual status spreadsheet, so I know exactly where I am, percentage-complete-wise, at every step. According to that, I will be doing somewhere in the neighborhood of 28,000 stitches in the next 16 days. And that doesn’t count frogging back to fix mistakes.

My spot is all set up, ready to cast on.
Note the cozy fireplace on the left, for my own personal Olympic Flame, if I want (although it will not be burning for 16 days straight.) Bonus points to anyone who knows what the big wooden thing on the wall above the couch is. =) I’m also planning to have my Official Olympic Photographer (aka hubby) take a casting-on action shot later.

Citius, Altius, Fortius, my fellow Olympians!

I have also decided that, as my self-challenge warm-up to the Olympics, I am going to have Kris’s socks finished before Friday. I got a fair amount done on them while watching the AFC Championship game and the Super Bowl (like more than I have done in the *mumble* months since I started them). It seemed that the more stressed I got, the faster I worked on them. I am about halfway done, and therefore to the heel portion (hee – I typed “hell” at first. Foreshadowing?), and I am fairly sure that I can get them done over the next few days. The ribbing on the cuff will slow me down some, but I can do it.

Will update later with swatches, once I finish the socks.

ETA: Swatch! (And no, the socks aren’t done yet. I wanted to play for a bit)

I sat down this morning and swatched, and although I am getting the right gauge (go me!), I don’t actually like the fabric it is making. It is a little too holey for me – I was hoping for something a little more solid. Unfortunately, I think that to get that I would need to go down at a US size 0, and would also not have the right gauge. So, clearly not the right yarn for this project. Pooh. Looks like I will have to order the actual pearl cotton at some point to make it.

So, now I have a decision to make. I have to decide which of the ridiculous number of projects that I already own yarn for is going to be the Emergency Back-Up Knitting Olympics project. Going back to my original post about choosing a project, I am going to choose between these:

Flower Petal Shawl in Pure Alpaca in “Malt Heather”
Lacey in Suri Dream in “Apricot”
KnitSimple Lacy Pullover in Patons Glittalic, Lacette, and Silverlash. (I tried to find a picture of this sweater online, but haven’t been able to so far.)

I keep bouncing back and forth between the three – I’ll let you know when I make a decision. Hopefully that will be by the time the Steelers win the Super Bowl tomorrow. =)