It's an arm!

Well, I have one arm of my Que Será knitted, washed and dried — when I'm knitting a sweater I find that an entire arm makes a good serious gauge swatch once I've tested for approximate gauge on a smaller bit. I also need to check my arm length modifications to see if they're right. I made the arm in a larger size for width (because comments on this cardi indicate the arms are tight, and I'm plump) and about an inch shorter than called for (because I have shrimpy arms). It's a close-fitting arm, but it's not too tight.

The yarn is the gorgeous Tahki Willow, a discontinued blend of 2/3 linen and 1/3 cotton. Terribly terribly splitty, but a cold-water wash and a stint in the dryer on low yields a gorgeous look and feel. I am doing the edges and button bands in a soft pearl grey color and the body in a tan/khaki color. I need a tan/khaki cardi for work and this will be ideal if I can make it fit.

I'm not 100% sure I'm okay with the way I increased the lace on this — only starting a new repeat once I had sufficient stitches for a full repeat, which is what the instructions suggest but which is kind of abrupt. As you can see, it makes the middle part of the arm have lace nearly all the way around, but the beginning and end parts don't. I could redo it with more careful counting to increase gradually, but I think I'm going to stick with what the pattern called for as I don't think people will be examining the inside of my arm all that often. At least, I hope not...

Buoyed by that success, I decided to tackle the emotional project of ripping back more than half of a knitted pullover:

I've put this off for THREE YEARS and I think that's long enough.

I am frogging from the bottom, and I need to rip back to approximately the level of the purple pen. The base of the ribbing is supposed to hit just above the point of the breasts; it's hitting below, on me. This is one of those articles that I need to knit at the correct width for my chest but shorten to a size or two lower throughout. It's also my first round-yoke sweater, so I need to find a sweet spot between too-low ribbing and too-tight arms (as these correspond). There may be some fiddling.

SQUEEEEEEEEE

I entered 4 items in the county fair this year, first time I've tried. And two got ribbons!

The one above is these socks:

Even better than the honorable mention in socks, I got a blue ribbon in child's sweaters!

I am SO EXCITED.