I now see what I did wrong.  I picked up the wrap incorrectly on the knit side.  I also wrapped backwards on the purl side.  So that, hopefully, explains why both sides look bad.

Now I just have to convince myself to frog the darn thing and do it right.

It’s been a really quick knit, and I’m happy with the way it turned out.

I followed the pattern darn near to the letter.  I think there was a mistake on the separation of stitches for the sleeves.  The pattern says, “k to the first marker, remove it, k1.  Using a blunt darning needle and scrap yarn, slip all the sts between here and the next marker to the length of yarn to hold fro the left sleeve.“  The right sleeve is pretty much the same instruction.  The problem is that this leaves 39 stitches on the yarn, and the sleeve is off-center by 1 stitch.  Later, when working the sleeves, you pick up 10 stitches from the under arm.  You should have 50 stitches at this point, but 39 + 10 = 49.  I think it would work best to leave off the k1 after removing the first marker.  That would center the sleeve in a way that makes much more sense, and it would leave you with the right number of stitches.

This is a top-down Raglan, so instead of the “Raglan Decrease” being K2tog,  SSK, it was worked as a pair of increases.  The pattern said to knit into the front and back of the stitch for both increases.  I started doing that, but it really didn’t look good.  So instead, I did a M1R and M1L pair.  These look very much like the K2tog, SSK pair of increases.

The only other issue I had was that I knit the first sleeve to the length the pattern indicated.  Gwen was long since asleep when I got to finishing the first sleeve last night, so I couldn’t try it on her.  When I tried it on this morning, it was about 4 inches too long.  My bad.  Luckily this is knit top down, so I just frogged back the right length, and finished the sleeve off again.  I tried it on once more before starting the other sleeve, and it fit much better.

The second sleeve went much quicker.  It was shorter, and I’m getting better with magic loop.

So here is the finished product.  Once again, Gwen has been asleep for quite a while now, so I can’t get a picture of her modeling it right now.

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I’ve never done Argyle before, and I’ve never done socks flat. I’ve also never done any project on these tiny needles.  I’ve done Intarsia before, but only with 3 color blocks.  This sock has 9 color groups.  There are a lot of firsts here, so it should be interesting.

I am having fun with this project.  I’m also learning a lot as I go.  I decide to knit the white lines as I go, instead of doing a duplicate stitch later.  When I first started, I actually had 13 color groups, as I had a different yarn for the black on either side of the white line.  I learned later that it is much easier to cary the color over the white line, and eliminate 4 yarns.  That’s a lot less to get all tangled up.

I also learned early on to not untangle the yarn unless absolutely necessary.  Just looking at the sock causes the yarn to form a tightly woven birds nest.  It’s better to just let the yarn tangle all up, and keep on knitting.  If it gets too difficult to work, untangle it then.

I experimented with bobbins as well.  I got some of those little plastic ones.  They worked well, but made the tangling much, much worse.  They ended up just being a nuisance, as I had to keep unwinding yarn from them.  I tried the figure-eight center pull windings.  I’ve used them before on Intarsia with a lot of success.  They too just got in the way here.  I finally settled on just letting the yarn run free.  I pull 2 to 3 yards (or meters for the metrically inclined out there) from the ball, and cut it off.  Then just let it hang while knitting.  The nice thing about his method, is it makes untangling quite easy.  Just pull each yarn out of the tangle.  Give them a pull, and they come right out.  It also helps to keep the whites shorter than the rest.  There are very few white stitches, so you don’t need much.

Here is a picture of the sock so far:

I placed another order for yarn for my argyle socks yesterday.

See, I ordered Knitpicks palette yarn, which seems nice.  It looks nice.  It feels nice.  But the color samples they have posted on their website?  …not so nice.

I planned a black sock, with blue and lighter blue boxes (not sure what they are called, argyles?) and white lines.  The black is good.  (“It’s like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.” – Nigel Tufnel).  I ordered Navy for the darker color.  It’s so dark, I can barely tell the difference between it and the black.  in fact, I knit a swatch,and switch colors halfway through.  I had to hold it right under a florescent light to see where the color change was.  The lighter blue, Marine Heather, is now going to be my darker blue.  I have more yarn coming, as I don’t have a light blue.

At least now I know what size needle I need for gauge, and I have a shiny new wooden 3mm 32″ circular needle coming.

Hopefully I’ll get the new yarn next week before Thanksgiving, so I can work it at the relatives.

Kind of like showing off.

That’s not bad is it?

Click on the image to get a larger view.

Here is the long awaited legend for this chart:

I’m really happy with the results, and it fits really well.  Of course, that is kind of the point of a custom knit sweater.

Here are a few pictures of the sweater I call FLAK…

However, I didn’t work on it at all today.  I have an adorable 3 year old, well 3 1/2 year old.  She’s been asking me for a sweater.  Every time there is a new project cast on in our house, she asks, “is it for me?”  Yesterday we went on the 2008 Shop Hop in our area. Every store we went in to, we looked for yarn for Gwen’s sweater.

The store clerk would ask, “Are you looking for something in particular?”  Invariably, when we asked Gwen, she said, “Pink!”  So we found some nice pink varigated yarn (Berroco Peruvia Colors).  We need 3 hanks, and they had exactly 3 hanks.

This morning, she helped me wind it into balls, so I could get started on it.  While we were winding it, she asked me who made it.  I said a company called Berroco.  She immediately said, “Bama”.  That’s my girl!

So I cast on a top-down, raglan, in-the-round sweater for her.  It’s going quite fast, especially compared to the cabled concoction I’m knitting for myself.  She’ll love it.

I’ve completed knitting on the body.  The only thing left to do is knit the neckline, and then tie up all the loose yarn.

This is the first time, in many, many months that I don’t have any live stitches on this sweater.  In fact, as of right now, I don’t have any live stitches on any needles at all.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve been able to say that.

Well, that’s about to change.  I’ve got 3 projects lined up.

1. Argyle Socks
2. Cabled Jacket
3. Sweater for Gwen

I have yarn for one of those projects, so I’ll get started on Gwen’s sweater as soon as I finish the neck on this one.

Here is a picture of the sweater as it stands right now (don’t mind the goofy looking mannequin):

I stayed up too late knitting, so I’ve got to keep this post short.  I’ll post some pictures soon.

The body was slow going for a LONG time.  I was kind of in a slump about the whole project, it just didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.  Then it just sort of clicked.  I’ve got the pattern down.  I barely even have to look at it to knit, and it seems to just be flying by on the needles.  I’m actually kind of sad that this project is coming to an end.  The other sweaters I’ve knit have all been baby or toddler sized.  By the time I approached the end of those projects, I was so sick of working on them, I couldn’t wait for them to be over.

I find that with this project, it is as fun and exciting right now as it was when I first started.  Perhaps more so now that I’ve got the whole thing figured out.  I’m not trying to make some progress, and still getting a feel for the process.

I definitely feel connection to this project.  It has been such a long time in knitting that it is kind of like an old friend.  I’ll be glad that it is done, since I’ll be able to wear and enjoy it.  At the same time, it will be sad that I’m no longer working on it.

I’m sure that will only last until I cast on my next project.