The Manly Maze: Part one

About 10-15% of the way done and already learned a couple of interesting lessons. 1) I knit much smaller in the round then I do flat. I will have to learn to buy extra fiber to do gauge tubes and forget swatching all together for my round projects. (My frugal self does not much like this particular lesson.) Not sure why this happens, as I purl smaller then I knit, so it would seem logical that the opposite be true. It's not though. 2) I really should read up on knitting theory and how things work before trying to be clever. I'm still too green to understand what I'm doing 9 time out of 10 until I've actually done them. For now, I *think* things will be alright, but we'll have to see. DH is an odd size and one is just too small, the next one up would be way too big. So I was going to make one in the middle, until I realized that with the pattern, that just won't work. Must learn to read ahead and pay attention to pattern details! So far though, it's going well and I'm doing my first ever contrast color pattern. The world is still here.

But anywho!

Manly Maze is going well and I am thus-far pleased with it. Couldn't quite get my gauge right while swatching, so I thought I'd be clever and cast-on the next size up and lose about 2 inches when all was said and done. (Mental note: learn how to properly swatch, as annoying as it is.) This didn't quite work out in practice as it should have in theory. Luckily, I think I've managed to get it wide enough because, had I followed the pattern and ignored the nagging voice telling me to try it on him first, it would have been too long and too big. The pattern would have been too low on the chest and arms and the arm holes too low. So I'm pre-emptively calling this a good save and thanking the heavens that I'm overly-cautious and worried things won't fit. (Mental note: this is a good trait to retain.)

There's a slight pull on the back that the camera caught. It isn't noticable otherwise, not to me anyway. It's from when I realized that size 4's were giving me too small a gauge and it was time to go up a size. Yes, I'm lazy, I didn't frog back. I would think a good washing and blocking should fix it right up.And a side view. I'm currently 5 or 6 rows below this point and am optimistic this first large project will turn out. If I don't drag my bottom, I should have it done before we go home, if not, I'll just have to finish it there, no biggie.