Till the end of November, all my posts will start this way: I’m raising money for Alzheimer’s Research UK by knitting every day in November. It’s important to me because my dad has Alzheimer’s. If you feel so moved, you can donate here.

I finally got my yarn delivered! Being honest it was only five days later than expected but when you’re itching to start a project, five days seems a lifetime, doesn’t it?

I asked my family if they wanted anything knitted for Christmas. Being on a career break of sorts, my budget is limited. So when my brother asked if I could do him a cardigan, Lebowski style, I was dubious. But, being me, wanted to see if I could make it work with the resources available to me in the moment.

The original cardigan is extraordinarily expensive to buy. It’s knit in 1 x 1 rib throughout, colourwork and all, and the yardage, time and fortitude required for that were prohibitive. But I’ve drafted a stockinette version, with colourwork based on pictures of the original, and  construction based on the Men’s Cowichan Cardigan Pattern. Now, a warning: that’s an All Free Knitting link. They credit the pattern to Bernat but the official pattern is out of print/not available online. So what’s a knitter to do except wade through a thousand pop-up ads?

I’ve started with a sleeve, which is functioning as a very large swatch. This picture is all my progress from yesterday – crazy to compare this with the two inches at a time I’m managing on my mitts!

I’ll have to frog back to add more increases, then revisit my pattern to revise the decreases at the shoulder. I took measurements on a cardigan my brother already wears, and the sleeves are two inches wider at the top – about 10 stitches with this yarn.

Anyway, plenty more to say about this project but I’ll save it for future days! I think it’s going to be a labour of love and we’re currently in the honeymoon phase…

Oh! And that sleeve represents 2278 stitches, for a total of about 5300 so far.

I’ve added this post to the Unraveled Wednesday linkup, with thanks to Kat for hosting.