I cast on this jacket, on the cover of the Noro Magazine, about two years ago – then stalled hard.

Here’s my first post about it.

Despite my doubts about the tightness of the foundation I-cord, I carried on.

Here’s the jacket so far, laid flat:

I’m working to the left, which will be the left front when it mirrors the part on the right. The back is in the middle, those dips are for the sleeves, and that blue-green-pink square at the top of the mountain is the top of the center back.

The colours are pretty. I’m surprised that the colourway on each block wants to repeat itself – look at the pair on either side of the deep V for the sleeve on the right. There are two blue-green-pink squares right beside each other (although one is on the front and one on the back) then right above them pink-purple-pink, in a mirror image. That’s when I noticed this tendency so I made sure the next one didn’t mirror, by changing balls. I wanted the colour to look more random, but it isn’t. That I-cord is curling, but since it’s the foundation row, I’d need to frog everything to make it looser.

I have a suspicion that the cardigan is going to make me look like a hobbit. Here it is with the fronts folded in place. It’s bulky.

I decided to remove the wooden needle at the front – where I’ve picked up and knit the stitches for the next square – then give the work-in-progress a good soak. I don’t usually block a project that isn’t done, but I need to check what that hem is going to do. I also want to confirm the fit before carrying on. I could add another row of squares to the top to make it longer, for example, if it’s going to fall at a cropped length. It’s unlikely that I could find more yarn in the same colourway and dye lot, but the sleeves are striped – I could do alternating stripes of Ito and another solid Noro colourway. (Maybe a purple.)

To my relief, the soaking made the points in I-cord easier to stretch out flat. I didn’t pin them since this isn’t the final block, but I’m more confident that I’ll be able to convince them to do that. (If I made it again – ha! – I would use a larger needle for the I-cord.) The dimensions didn’t change much, so I’ll carry on. I’ll update you when there’s more to share.

I do really like this colourway…