Not-quite-, but almost-, Insta-Sweater

So I've finally cast on for the Francis Revisited sweater I've posted about relentlessly for weeks. Over the course of the weekend, I've gotten to the decrease rows for the waist shaping (it's a top-down raglan, for those of you not already familiar with the pattern). And in fact, it would be going even faster if I was following the directions precisely. Which is to say, the yarn and needles I'm using are giving me somewhat finer gauge than is called for (4.25 stitches/inch, rather than 3.25), so I'm knitting about 25 percent more stitches than I would have had to, were I capable of following directions to a T. While I'm pleased with the finer gauge -- and the greater certainty that I won't need to layer the finished product over another shirt in order to wear it appropriately -- I should probably state for the record that the modification is more accurately related to the fact that I'm using the largest circular needles I own, and this is the gauge I got, so this is the gauge I'm using. Buying new needles would have caused a delay, and I'm impatient like that. But also, finer gauge = wearable sweater without layering. Yes.

So anyway, at the pace I'm going, I should have this thing done by the end of December. Which, I *think*, will mean that I'll have accomplished my goal of knitting twelve sweaters in 2008. I'll have to count again to make sure. If I'm one short, though, I'm totally blaming Thermal, the (wonderful, cute) tiny-gauge sweater that's half done at this point, but which has already taken up about eleventy trillion Francises worth of knitting effort.