A: When it turns into a vest!
As already mentioned, my Ode to Joy was a total flop as a sweater. I believe we can attribute it to a) a gauge problem (?), and/or b) an “I’ve-gotten-bigger-and-have-no-idea-why” problem 
. But let’s not dwell on the negative!!
Anyhoo, the sweater was a disaster, but I was unwilling to let the sweater beat me. I was also unwilling to re-knit any part of it. I’ve played way too many rounds of THAT game! So I removed the offending sleeve and converted it into a cropped vest. It turned out okay…still tiny but kind of cute:
It is still quite damp — when it dries I’ll put it on Lettie for a test drive. It gained some size with blocking. When wet, this was the softest, limpest thing I have ever seen! I really didn’t know if I could shape it properly, but it seems to be okay. I plan on taking it with me next weekend to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival to look for closures. I did not make buttonholes — I will do something with clasps or maybe frog closures (?) and have the front bands simply meet in the center.
Finally finished.
