the emergency sweater begun

That crazy idea about making a sweater in time for Christmas seems less crazy today. On a browse through Creative Yarns on Saturday afternoon, I found a Noro colourway that I decided would be perfect. Nina suggested knitting the body of the sweater in the round - less finishing, consistent colouration from front to back and faster knit without any reverse side purl rows. All good points, but I opted to knit it on straights - shorter rows, lighter on the needles, and longer stretches between colour transitions. Besides, I don't mind finishing and I don't have any circular needles at a suitable size.

On the Noro ball band, the recommended needle size is 4.5mm to 5mm. The pattern was written for 4mm DK yarn, but I'm guessing that larger needles will improve the drape and flexibility of the knitted fabric so 5mm it is. Besides, it won't hurt my pocket book to use less yarn on larger needles. It took a bit of swatching and a bit of calculation to get the number of stitches right for the size I want. The pattern is written for an Extra Small, Small and Medium size, but I wanted something just a touch bigger. Not much bigger, because the sweater styles meant to be comfortably fitting with just a few inches of ease. Fingers crossed that the finished sweater fits.