I confess I didn’t cast on during the opening ceremony. I haven’t seen that hour of the morning for a long time: once Rose is asleep in the evening, I’m pretty much nodding off straight after. So instead I cast on on Friday evening before bed and hope that won’t get me accused of being a big fat cheat and thus disqualified. 
Progress is good as of this morning. I have knitted three pattern repeats, so that’s halfway to placing the sleeve steeks and almost a third of the entire body completed. I should do some mathematical doodad to work out just how long it will take to knit the entire sweater based on my current pace but a) that will eat into my knitting time and b) babies are unpredictable.
This weekend, for example, was a rare occasion where Rose wanted to snooze and snack a lot, so with the assistance of some cunningly placed cushions, she could eat with my hands free and I knitted merrily for several hours yesterday afternoon.
The sweater is looking great so far. The hardest slog was the corrugated ribbing. I have only tried this once before and it took forever because I had to drop one yarn and pick up the other as I couldn’t purl with my left hand. But I’m wiser now: I’ve discovered Norweigan Purl. There are good photos explaining how to do it on this site. It’s simply a way of purling with the left hand that doesn’t need the yarn to be moved from the back to the front and back again each time. It was tricksy at first and my left index finger got stabbed a fair bit, but by the final few rounds, I was whizzing along and it was, without a doubt, miles easier than purling in the old way.
Though I’m using Opal and Trekking sock yarns which are superwash, they are both developing a nice hairy halo, a bit like traditional Shetland yarns. I’ve no fear of steeking, anyway, and as I’ll be reinforcing the steeks with crochet like before, they’d have to try very hard indeed to unravel. 
