Finish or Frog It: Three Button Sweater

(Finish or Frog It is a series we are doing this year to address “stash” and “completion” issues in our homes. We invite you to join us. )

Here we are. I am tested just by looking at the pictures that I am uploading for this post. Thanks to all of you who have commented in some of my previous posts, I feel like I might not be so far from normal. So I am going to show you this project that is near and dear to my heart. I give you, again, the Three Button Sweater. You can see discussion of the three button sweater here.And, yes, here. Sigh. What happened? It is beautiful, really.

Well my sweet peach put the original sweater on the other day and she still has a love for it.

Wow. Look at that. Those long legs, with just enough bruises to let me know that she is PLAYING. She told me the morning I took this picture, “Mama, in this sweater, and these socks and these shoes, I look like a high schooler.” You what? Oh. Please. Stop the ride. It is going too fast!

In this gesture, you can see the sleeve length. The sweater still ALMOST fits.  I am so happy that it is on her body still, because it gives me hope that I might finish it in time for her to wear it, instead of in time to put it in a hermetically sealed bag to give to a future grand child.

Really, the only thing I can offer in my defense is that we live in a climate that only requires sweaters, in the morning about 10 weeks out of the year and that’s about it. (Before you get all crazy, please understand that we are also having the worst drought known to man and there is no end in sight. )

There really is not a question here of “if” I should finish it. I should. I think the only question is “how FAST could I finish this?” I need to knit the shoulders and 2 sleeves. The only hurdle to my speed is the fact that I do not have a pattern, I am making it up. So I need to move methodically along and carefully plot my “next move”.

The real sweetness in this original sweater is in the front detail

It has a “bodice” with little tucks in it. My original intention was to make those tucks in my knitting too, so I made each front panel wider than I needed it to be.

You can see the overlap in the front there. (This picture is looking up from the bottom, and you can see the overlap in the hem.) I think this will still be big enough to fit her, even with the gathers in it.

I have the pattern for at least the bodice part all mapped out on big gingham.

But I don’t have all the details worked out.

Stay tuned. I will be back. Let’s see if I can’t lean into this a little harder.