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Friday I finished Layton!

I knit the collar, folded and stitched it down, grafted the underarms, wove in the ends, washed, and blocked it.

And then I realized I’d forgotten about the optional cuffs.

Early on I’d kind of written off the idea of the cuffs, because I thought they’d make the bottom of the sleeves too bulky. But the sweater fabric is pretty light, so I thought I’d give them a go.

If they work out ok, it will be nice to have a substantial edge at the wrist that kind of echos the doubled collar. And if they don’t, I can always just remove them.

So, I was done, and then I wasn’t. But I’m mighty close. 🙂

Also wanted to share an update on that little rose that I started from seed this spring- she’s got a bloom!

Can’t believe how fast she’s grown!

Very exciting to see it coming together—–

Tomorrow I will tackle the other side and do a quick steam block to relax everything and make sure all the bits fall in place nicely.

Hard to tell for sure at this point, but it looks like the short row shaping had the desired effect in raising the back neck. Kind of wish it was my size so I could try it on and check,, but not possible with this one. Hmmm.

Not much to say this week, but just wanted to share a couple snaps of things that are brightening my days.

Heavy rain has been taking a toll on the peonies, but I managed to gather these beauties between downpours.

And also roses- they are trying hard to get their first bloom on, but June-uary weather has got them a little confused. Lady Emma Hamilton is hanging in there, though

And my shoulder chart is working out as far as I can tell….though I’ve still got my “lifelines” in place just in case 🙂

The Layton-ish project is joined at the underarms and starting to grow shoulders!

And I have mapped out how the sleeve and body decreases should be placed in order to most closely approximate the shaping of the Layton pattern.

Once I got that sorted out, I revisited the EZ seamless saddle shoulder instructions, and realized that I’d forgotten about the final step – the short rows at the back of the neck.

The EZ saddle shoulder has you knit short rows a the back of the neck after completing the saddles- eating up half of the saddle stitches. I can’t do that because the stitch detail on the sleeve is supposed to run up the mock-turtleneck collar. So I’ve opted to incorporate short rows earlier in the shoulder shaping to create extra height in the back, effectively tipping the whole upper chest forward and raising the back by about 1.25 inches before I get to working the saddles.

Feeling good about the plan at this point. The math checks out, so here we go!