Snowflake Sweater

I promised you an update on my commissioned sweater, and here it is!

Front

I slipped the stitches onto a pair of cables and tried it on myself. It'll block a little larger, but the size is close enough for me to get a rough idea and to take pictures.

I have a little bit further to do on the bottom and then I have to start the ribbing. I'm going to do a 3x3 rib because the client doesn't want it to pull in a lot. It's the same rib I used on Troy's cable sweater and I like how it turned out.

Back

I think I've said this before, but I really feel like I've turn the corner on knitting continental. Since I finished the colourwork, I have just been whipping along in continental and my tension is really consistent. I started a new ball of blue wool on Thursday night, and already finished it this morning. That was about three hours of knitting. Maybe the balls are smaller than most, but that seemed really fast to me. (Of course it also made me panic about whether I have enough wool, but I really think I do. It was just startling to get through it that fast.)

I had been keeping notes about my time in Ravelry, but this weekend I transferred them to an Excel spreadsheet. I found out that I have spent
-15 hours in communicating with the buyer, planning, and pattern design
-2 hours on the swatch
-1 hour ripping back, and
-37 hours actually knitting.

I also added a formula to report my wage; it's updated with every entry I make. I'm right around $4.50/hr right now and probably about half way done the knitting.

It helps to not think of it as a job that pays $4.50/hr, but as a hobby that pays $4.50/hr. How many of your hobbies make you any money??

(But don't think about it too long. I'm not sure the argument holds up.)