I finished the body of my Love Note, guessing on length based on my Soldotna Crop. I wanted it to be one inch longer than that. (I love my Soldotna Crop, but wasn’t willing to buy a whole skein of yarn just to knit one more inch.) I am opting to not do the short row shaping at the hem; I just want the sweater to be the same length all the way around.
I decided to finish the neckline before moving on to the sleeves, for two reasons. The first reason: I want to know just how much yarn I have left for the sleeves, in case I have to make them shorter than the pattern suggests. Yarn chicken is a common game around here.
The other reason: I wanted to know exactly how long my sweater is, and I couldn’t know that without finishing the neck, because everything hangs from there.
The first time I finished, I realized I hated the round crew neckline around my neck! It made me feel claustrophobic. No thank you! I don’t even have a picture; I frogged that back in the middle of the night.
I thought about how comfortable the provisional cast on was when I tried it on for length. The instructions have a round of decreases, and then on to the ribbed neck.
Waiting with provisional cast on
I ripped back to the neckline decreases, so it’s still not as wide as it was with just the provisional cast on, but a reasonable width. Then I worked 7 rounds of stockinette on the smaller needle. This rolls *away* from my neck, and is a little wider than the ribbed neck (ribbing pulls in more), which makes me very happy. This is basically the same treatment I gave my Stopover sweaters. Winning!
I weighed my remaining yarn, and now I’m knitting down the first sleeve.
I’m at the point where it reminds me of “The Wild Swans” by Hans Christian Andersen. Do you remember that story, where the last sweater isn’t quite finished, and the last brother has one wing and one arm?
What are you knitting right now?
PDXKnitterati 
I am not actually knitting, but awaiting delivery in 1¼ hours of my Noro Silk Garden that’ll get me into (finally !) your wonderful entrelac knitting KAL. I even have a shortcut to you your list of links up on my menu bar – a tiny Michele smiling away ..
Did your yarn arrive? We want pictures! Noro has such pretty colorways.
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It bloody didn’t, Michele – and after AusPost had sent an email to tell me it would ! Now I must wait till TUESDAY. Am I a tad irritated ? – nup, I’m really irritated. Grrrrrr ..
I find I have trouble with close crew necks too. It never used to be an issue until the last couple of years. I’m not sure why it is now.
I’m working on Minerva, thinking about my next sock cast on, and waiting for a 5.5mm needle to arrive so I can knit a chunky cardigan for a friend.
I know I’m going to like this neckline a lot better. I don’t think I’ve ever liked crew necks.
Thanks for knitting Minerva! That’s the only other project I have on the needles. I think once I finish Minerva and Love Note, I’ll have the mental bandwidth to work on a shawl design I’ve been thinking about…for a year or so!
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Well, thank you for saving me that agony..as you know, I am about to cast on my Lovenote and I love you for all the trial and error you’ve saved me…and don’t say I owe you one.
You will be delighted to know that I am about to finish your Oh La La scarf after so many years of wanting to and 3 frogs of unsuccessful bead attempts. The Bead Aid you showed me at Red Alder saved the day!
I love my Bead Aid! I need to do another beaded project sometime. Put it on the list!
Glad to save you time/trouble on your Love Note. I’ve had a good time playing around with it, but now it’s time to actually sit down and get it done! After I write my newsletter…that’s overdue, too.
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Your Love Note is beautiful! That is a nice collar treatment and looks much more comfy. I just love that color yarn!
Thank you! Now to just sit down and finish knitting!
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