Everything else is on hold

Last Wednesday, DD2 came up to me and said "Mummy to make pink jumper.  Little round neck, one button at the back".  She rarely asks me to make anything for her, so I was a bit surprised.

I did a pattern search on Ravelry and had a think about any patterns I might have in books that would do, but couldn't come up with anything.  So, I did what any sensible Raveller would and asked in the Patterns forum.  There were several suggestions (including one cardigan that I quite like for myself), but the one that best fit the bill was Bulle.  I bought the pattern and downloaded it and then had a think about yarn I might have in stash.  As is often the case, I didn't have anything suitable, so I went back to the pattern page on Ravelry and had a look at yarns people had used to make this cute sweater.  I noticed that a few people had used Drops Lima, so I opened a new tab on my laptop and went to the Wool Warehouse website.  Once DD2 was home from school, I showed her the yarn and asked her what colour she liked.  Unsurprisingly, she went for the deep cerise pink, so nine balls (because I need to make the sleeves long) were bought ---- and very promptly arrived on Friday (they're good, those people at Wool Warehouse - this was the second time I'd bought yarn from them).

I case on and started knitting straight away and, as I keep being told to "do knitting" every time I sit down (DD2 really wants this sweater!), I started the fourth ball yesterday evening and am three or so inches down the body, having divided for the sleeves when I got home from knitting group yesterday lunchtime.

Progress photo?  Oh, all right then.

The front.  It starts with a garter stitch section worked back and forth, with a bit of short-row shaping to make the back slightly higher than the front and one row of increases an inch or so in and then it's a regular raglan increase until the part where the sleeve stitches are put on waste yarn until it comes time to knit them.

I've pulled the back opening apart for the next photo so you can see it better.  After I'd made the buttonhole and finished the garter stitch section, DD2 then went into my button tin and decided she wanted three buttons instead of one, so I'll have to sew up the buttonhole (maybe do sew some duplicate stitches to cover the join) and will do some crochet loops for the three smaller buttons (the buttonhole's too big for the buttons she's chosen).

As DD2 is now 11 and 'developing', I did an extra three increase rows and adjusted the stitch count accordingly when I divided for body and sleeves.

Can you see the flared bit at the centre front and centre back?  That's a 'gather' made by knitting in to the front, back and front again of the centre 10 stitches, increasing that area to 30 stitches.

I'm rather pleased with progress to date.  I'm not going to make the pockets (too much temptation for DD2 to put all manner of things in there - bits of food, hair clips, etc) and I might knit straight down rather than doing the decreases the pattern calls for before the bottom garter stitch band.

For the sleeves, I'll pick up the stitches and knit straight down, decreasing two stitches every six or so rows for a bit of shaping, ending with a garter stitch cuff.

I'm hoping I've bought enough yarn.  It depends on how long DD2 wants the sweater to be.  I'm going to knit another couple of balls on the body, then I'll put end stoppers on the cable and do the sleeves before continuing with the body.  One good thing about Wool Warehouse is that there's an option to choose the yarn dye lot you want, so I can keep an eye on their stock levels and if it looks like there are only a couple of balls left, I'll buy them to be on the safe side (I can always make a hat if I don't need them).

Right - I'd better get knitting.  I don't want to get in trouble if there's no progress made by the time she gets home from school this afternoon!