Schönheitsfehler

The majority of the knitting on Jeff's Seamless Hybrid Sweater is complete! I spent yesterday and some of day knitting up the saddles and the shirt yoke across the back. I'm pretty pleased with the fit, although it could be maybe an inch longer. Blocking should take care of that. The slipped stitch seam where the saddle joins with the body is rolling a bit now, and I think perhaps just blocking will cause those parts to relax a bit.

In yesterday's post I wrote that I'd decided to divide the 68 stitches remaining across the front and back thusly: 24 stitches for the left shoulder saddle, 22 for the neck, and 24 for the right shoulder saddle. After sleeping on it, I decided that it would be better to err on the side of a larger neck hole. Please don't infer anything about Jeff's ego based on this decision. I just know I would prefer to have more head room than shoulder room. So I adjusted the split to 22-24-22. This gives the neck hole a little over half an inch more room.

It was cool seeing the saddle being knitted horizontally and "eating up" (as Elizabeth Zimmerman describes on her The Knitting Workshop DVD) the stitches along the front and back. I did end up breaking the yarn and starting the second saddle fresh, although I suppose you could (and perhaps I was supposed to) knit around to that point. But I wanted the number of rows to be exactly the same on both sides.

And then came the moment of truth -- grafting the two saddles together with Kitchener stitch to make it seem as if there were one continuous pieces of fabric running from wrist to wrist and across the back of the shoulders. I'm not sure why I was anxious -- grafting stitches in worsted weight yarn is a heck of a lot easier than closing a sock toe on size 0 needles. I have to say the grafting line is all but invisible -- I even think that after I weave in the yarn I used for grafting the beauty mark, or Schönheitsfehler, where the grafting ends is going to look pretty good, too.

I've been trolling Ravelry, looking at the various ways that knitters have executed a collar for this design. I have to say that EZ's instructions are confusing me some. But the ends is in sight!

Canidae Update: Pona and Kate have been hunkered down for this latest cold snap. We went on long walks today and tried not to let anyone stop for any length of time. This morning's walk was in windy 26-degree weather -- this afternoon a more tolerable 32. But Pona needs a sweater. If he stops for any amount of time he starts shivering. This picture shows the same pillow as in last post's video -- although rather than the center of a king-of-the-mountain battle, it's a nice cozy spot for both of them to take a post-dinner nap. This is the first time that she has allowed him to share a pillow with her. Progress!