Day 20, The #CowParade Project
You may have noticed that I’m posting less frequently now. That’s because as I get deeper into the project, the sweater increases in circumference along with the cow’s increasing girth.
Now it takes me approximately 30 minutes to finish a single row. Since it’s 4 full rows for an inch of length, that’s 2 hours of work per inch of sweater.
But I had anticipated that when I was planning the project out which is why I did as many rows as I could when the circumference was smaller. Now I’m about at the halfway mark for the sweater length. As you can see in the first photo, I’ve separated the yoke for the leg openings and placed those stitches on waste yarn. When I’m finished with the sweater body, I’ll return to the leg openings and knit them in the round from haunch to hoof.
I have to return the completed cow to Old Sturbridge Village by June 10th. My hard deadline to finish knitting is Jun 2nd, which will give me over a week to block, steek, weave in the ends, and add buttons. That’s a full 56 knitting days in total, and I’m already at day 20. So 36 days are left.
I’m starting to wonder how I’m going to block this thing! It’ll be far too large to fit on my blocking mats. I suspect I’ll have to block it outside on our patio table. If it’s too big for that, then the barn floor.
Now that I’ve gotten the leg opening stitches on hold, I can no longer try the sweater on the cow. Not until I’m finished and cut the steek to make it a cardigan. But I’m confident with my measurements and math. Plus, pure wool allows a decent amount of wiggle room when I wet and position it during blocking.
If you have any questions about the project or my process, please ask!