My two doctor’s appointments, on Friday, proved fruitful.  I thought I would have an hour to knit and instead, I had over two hours.  My test was done in 20 minutes and the doctor was running late from surgery.  I ended up getting almost half the length of my yoke knit.

I had another doctor’s appointment on Monday and a trip to O’Hare to pick up my Mom on Tuesday.  More waiting equals more knitting. 

 In my twenties, all this waiting would have made me insane.  I have learned to embrace that life doesn’t always go smoothly.  Instead of getting upset, I think of it as down time provided courtesy of the Universe.  Given my work schedule, I am grateful for every bit of “me” time and welcome a chance to knit or read.

I managed to get my yoke knit to the point of separating my sleeves by Friday.  Early Sunday morning, I got my sleeves separated off and on waste ribbon so I would be able to knit while waiting for the Brigg’s & Al’s Run & Walk for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin to start.

Once, I got knitting I really didn’t want to stop so I knit the whole 3 miles of the walk.

Today, I did more sweater math to determine how many decreases I wanted for my waist shaping.  The goal being to knit while watching the Packer game.  At halftime,  I decided to try my sweater on again, since I now have sleeves.

The Top Down Sweater Tutorial has been a real learning process.  I have had successes and missteps along the way.  I knit too many rows before I did the math for my yoke length.  So that got ripped back 8 rows.

On Monday, I picked up some double pointed needles from Cream City Yarn for my sleeves.  The lovely ladies suggested that I knit the sleeves on two circulars.  In trying to determine what would be best, I went out to the car to bring in my knitting.

I had already decided that I would deviate from my sweater math and stop adding to the depth of my yoke.  Thanks to Kristine, I avoided another mistake.  She told me I needed more yoke depth to ensure I would have a proper fitting sleeve and underarm.  I am so grateful to them for all of their help!

I learned a very important lesson – follow the tutorial and stick to the sweater math.

I am concerned my sweater may be a bit too big since my shoulders are puckering.   I am hoping this will resolve itself when I start knitting my sleeves.  If it doesn’t, I will be ripping back most of my sweater so I can get it right.

As frustrating as it will be to rip it back, I want my sweater to be exactly what I want.  Fingers crossed.

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