Last Monday

Friends, can you believe we've reached the last week of 2021? Intellectually, I know that it's been a full and busy year, but emotionally I feel like it was just the final days of 2020 and we were so full of hope for what the new year could bring. I am sure many of you, like me, are sad that this year didn't turn out quite as we'd hoped, even if we're not surprised.

Normally I don't blog every day, but I thought I might try it just for this week, as there's a lot to wrap up and reflect on. Tomorrow I'll post my year-end reflection on my One Little Word and reveal my word for 2022. Later in the week, I'll take a look at my reading and crafting for the year. Today, though, is a more typical post, an update on my May(be) Queen.

The pattern advised trying on the sweater before splitting for the sleeves and body, in case more length was needed in the yoke, but I didn't do that. I'd gotten almost perfect gauge when I swatched, and I really felt that trying on a yoke before there was fabric under the arms wouldn't give me an accurate sense of fit. So I gambled a bit, but it all worked out just fine.

Please excuse my tired face -- these photos were taken yesterday evening, after I'd walked 7 miles and gone for a swim. The bottom of the sweater is flipping up because of the cable in the needle, but I can tell you that the fit is perfect. I am making the smallest size, which is technically a size smaller than I should be making for my bust size, but I wanted less positive ease than the pattern recommended. I should end up with 2-3 inches of ease in the end; it's looking a bit more fitted here mainly because it hasn't been blocked yet, but as the yarn is a superwash merino/nylon, I'm fully expecting the fabric to relax some once it's blocked.

It's interesting to me that the yarn has started pooling/spiraling despite the fact that I am alternating two skeins. It's not bothering me at all -- just an observation! The next part of the body involves some short rows, though, so I imagine that will get broken up a bit in the rest of the body.

While the yoke engaged my attention by having a different increase pattern almost every round, now I'm enchanted by the patterning under the arm:

The variegation in the yarn makes it a bit difficult to see, but there are horizontal welts in the space between the twisted ribbing. It's getting wider every other round (increases that are offset by corresponding decreases on the other side of the ribbing panels), and it also gives a nice hourglass-like curve to the sides of the sweater that I think will be really flattering.

I'd say it's highly unlikely that this sweater will be finished before we head home, but I'll have made a very good start on it, and perhaps in January I'll focus on finishing this one and my long-suffering Shifty.