#self drafted pattern

Explanation for how to make this:

Start at the center back by casting on a few stitches (3? I'm pretty sure I did 3). Increase every other row by 4 stitches, one on either side of the center and one each edge. I used a lifted increase (picking up the yarn thread between stitches and knitting it) but you can do whatever you like. I marked the center stitch by purling it, and then with stitch markers when the number of stitches got unwieldy.

Keep increasing until you've got the width you want for your body! I had 69 (nice) stitches on each half. Then maintain that number and make the sides go up by increasing at the center spine and decreasing at the edges. Learn from my mistakes and don't panic about the center back being too long, keep going until the sides are a reasonable length.

Now sleeves! I had two balls of yarn but you could probably just put one half on a stitch holder and get back to it later. It's short row shaping time.

I worked my way up, wrapping and turning every 3 stitches. Depending on how many stitches you have, that number might be different? Once you've made it all the way across, knit straight for a while to bring the sleeve over the top of the shoulder.

Oh yeah, that center stitch marking the spine. Uh. I had knit both sleeves up to the point of having all the stitches knit, and then (let me remember...) knit two together on one side to work in the center stitch?

Short row shaping the other side: same thing backwards.

Front time! Increase at the sides, decrease at the front middle. To make sure that the front and back ended up the same size, I was knitting the front panel to the back by either slipping a picked up stitch from the back (knit rows) or purling two together (with a picked up stitch from the back). This is because I'm an idiot who hadn't kept count of how many rows I had done on the back, you could keep count and just stitch the sides, or if there's a better way to knit the sides together let me know.

Anyways, once the front and back are the same length decrease on both sides of the knitting until you only have a few left and then you can bind off or choose to knit those last few into an I-cord.

I picked up the bottom hem and the front edges/ neck of the cardigan with single crochet to stabilize the edges.

Sleeve bands!

I guess I'll have to write out what I did bc the guides for double sided knitting I'm looking at are different. Hmmm.

Take yarn A and yarn B. Slip knot A then B on your needle, cast on a stitch of A, then a stitch of B, etc alternating. I did 9 stitches of each.

Hold B with your left hand! This is the knit hand. Hold A in your right hand, the purl hand. (Assuming that B is the first stitch on the needle, which it should be?) Hold both yarns at the back when knitting, and at the front when purling, or you'll end up with yarn wrapped around the needle. Yeah. At the end of the row, turn the work and swap which yarn is in which hand.

For the diamonds, I did a pattern of

Row 1: stitches 2 and 8

Row 2: stitches 3 and 7

Row 3: stitches 4 and 5

Row 4: stitch 5

(And reverse and repeat etc etc)

The colour swap is just. Using the other yarn on that stitch. And by stitch I mean set of 2 stitches. Hmmm. Hopefully I've made myself clear?

The sleeve bands are obviously thicker (double fabric) and I don't know if the change in tension came from me holding two yarns or something about the process of knitting both sides at once, but the stitches are looser. I'm okay with that

Again I didn't keep track of how many rows I had made the sleeves, so once I had a fair bit of sleeve band I sewed it to the arm hole and used that as a guide for how much further I needed to knit. But you could be smarter!

Creating things: a wonderful blend of "I'm genius" and "I'm a fucking idiot".

I'm incredibly pleased with how it turned out (and with myself for ACTUALLY FINISHING A PROJECT)

But I was just making it up as I went along. If anyone has advice or suggestions for how to do things differently/ better, please share!

The plan isn't for anything too complicated, a simple jsk with lace trim and layered ribbons going perpendicular to the stripes. Now to measure, refit and reprint my bodice blocks!

I recently got two planners to use for projects, one technically for cosplay as a Google sheet, and a physical one they both have differing spaces for each step laid out. I love them so much already! And they were both under $10!

I also recently made a rice bag for warmth on bad pain days (aka almost all days recently), it works really well! I plan to use the fabric for another jsk, and am looking forward to that!

About halfway through what will become a large triangle shawl.

But what I'm still working on (now that my procrastinated procrastination project is done) the 2 dart bodice again, so I can move on to princess seams, aka the best seams.

Wish me luck! I just had to recut this version because of an alteration that should've been done with the 1 dart bodice, but I just made adjustments to both so I didn't have to remake the 2 dart bodice from the ground up.