Machine knitting: front panel / looking forward

This post is part of a series, as I play catch-up on KnitFactoryImpl's knitalong of a set in sleeve crew neck sweater for channel members.

At the dawn of the final day of the knitalong, I was determined to finish the machine-knit portions of the build. That means making the front panel, seaming the front and back along one shoulder, rehanging the neckline, and knitting the collar.

The front panel is constructed about the same as the back panel, but with differences in the neck and shoulder shaping. Compared with my rough go of it on the back panel, the front panel went much easier. I found myself tripping over the combination of working the pattern and switching yarns for the colored stripes. And I'm afraid that no one on Earth knows exactly how the stitch and row counts on the arm hole and neck actually shaping turned out. Future me will, unfortunately, become the one to solve this puzzle.

I played gravity chicken with the cast-on comb and weights and, unfortunately, they were near touching the ground just as the pattern called for the long series of decreases for arm hole shaping. I was able to hang the regular cast-on comb, but it added some complication with moving those stitches. If I had to do it again, I'd make sure to re-hang all the weights 10 or so rows before that.

I also regret being precious and/or clever with managing the out-of-work yarn. To keep down the number of ends to work in, I let the out-of-work yarn float from one section to the next. For straight sections, I should be able to hide the floats in a seam. For areas with decreases and bind-offs, I should have just snipped yarn and worked in the ends as I went. I think I'll be cutting and adding extra yarn to several floats that ended up being pulled shorter than the stitches they are meant to hide among. 😩

With breaks for food and stretching, it took me about 4 hours to get through this body panel. With my other obligations for the day, I don't think I'll be able to finish the neckline tonight. But, hey, there's always tomorrow!

I'm not super confident in how this is gonna turn out, but I'm proud that I've pushed through so far! Plus I got to try draping all the major pieces on!