Better late than never! My Saturday Evening Hoodie knit.

Last year, around this time, Lion Brand had a knit along for their Saturday Evening Hoodie.  The yarn I picked was the Bluebell color of their Wool-Ease Chunky yarn. I didn't think it would take me that long to knit because it was a chunky yarn.  Boy, was I wrong.   I got 2 new needles - US 13 36 inch cable needles and US 11 30 inch cable needles, both made of wood.  Mainly because its easier to travel, I usually get cable needles since both needles are attached to one another. You can knit flat or on the round with cable needles.
I knitted both sides of the front and the back using the round needles as flat needles.  I think I finished those three pieces in September.  That is when I got hit with bronchitis for the first time.
Mid-November is when I got started on the sleeves.  I wasn't looking forward to knitting 2 sleeves on flat needles (I am not fond of knitting flat, I prefer knitting on the round)  so I spent the first few days trying to convert the sleeves from knitting each one separately to knitting both on the round using the method of 2 socks one needle (magic loop is another term).
The way they wrote the instructions, they have you start at the cuff using Knit 2/Purl 2 ribbing for the first 3 inches.  They wanted you to cast on 30 stitches. If I did that, I would have had 4 Knit stitches in a row, so I had to choose do I add 2 stitches or take 2 stitches. I chose to add 2 stitches so I would have 32 inches (since the ribbing pattern is 4 stitches, I wanted to have the cuff be divisible by 4 so it would be a clear pattern with not obvious seam.) I have to admit, the ribbing kntting on the size 11 needles was challenging for the first 5-8 rows.  What made it easier was I got another set of 11s and so I would knit back and forth between the 2 cable needles. It took me most of December to finish the cuff, but it was hectic and I was still recovering from bronchitis.

To the above right is a picture of the finish cuffs on the US 11 needles. I am using 2 skeins of yarn - one for each sleeve to make it a bit easier. From there, I knitted directly onto the US13, making it the first row. On the 4th row, I K1, increased a stitch (I think I did M1L) K15, M1L, K16 (to the beginning of the round on that sleeve.) and then repeated on the second sleeve on that same row. 3 normal knit rows, and then I did another increase, and the second increase was K1, M1L, K16, M1L, K17.  Each progressing increase I would move the 2nd increase 1 stitch farther along.

Above Left are my knit markers.  They snap closed so I can snap them into my knitting and easily remove them. (so I can snap them into stitches directly to help count rows!) Above Right is my sleeve, with 4 of the adding rows done, marked with my stitch markers. To the right is what my sleeves look like currently.

To the right here is the sleeve on my arm.  I have done 9 of the 10 increases.  It currently covers my arm from wrist to just past my elbow.












Here is the sleeve with a tape measure next to it. from the beginning of the cuff to the end of the sleeve is 13 inches long. :)











I am doing the sleeves this way for several reasons.  One of which is the fact I want the sleeves to be the same length without having to count and recount rows.  Another is, I hate sewing up seams, so doing this I wont have a seam for most of the sleeve.

When the second part of the sleeve directions start - where you decrease stitches and start to form the shoulder, I will do that flat.  Hopefully this will work out!