United

This photo was taken a few days ago - the sleeves and body have been united on the needles ready for the raglan decreasing up to the neck. I've knitted about 4 inches since then. I put my work onto three Denise cables so I could flatten it out. I went through a period of anxiety when I thought my slightly wider sleeves would result in a sweater which was too wide around the shoulders, but I have tried it on and it seems okay. The body is a little narrower than I wanted, but hopefully it will look fine once finished and washed. Of course, the effect of the variegated yarn changes depending on the width of the knitting - the sleeves have wider bands of colour than the body.

The skin on my index fingers is actually cracking under the strain (I knit the continental way) but I can't knit with a band aid on my finger so I have had to be careful not to poke my needle tips into the sore bits!

At the widest point, there were about 280 stitches on the needles, but with the decreasing of 8 stitches every other row the rounds are going faster and faster.

When I have some time to myself, I have to decide whether to knit or to read Voyager (Diana Gabaldon) or to do both at the same time and figure out how to wedge the book open on my lap!