Back to the Drawing Board

Thanks to the input of a couple of knitterly friends, I've got a new plan for the Blake Sweater (as it will now be called).

Once I settled down from my dismay over the design dilemma and stopped dwelling on it, some options floated into my brain. I keep a pad of paper handy when I knit. The meditative quality of knitting clears my head of other clutter and (when I'm lucky) ideas and solutions come to me.
I had two options if I wanted the garter to run across the yoke and down the arms. For sure I didn't want horizontal rows of of garter it makes me think of mariachi costumes.
First, I could work it like the Jordan sweater I knit earlier this summer. The body was knit in the round as one piece. Then the two sleeves were knit as rectangles. The sleeves were than angled and sewn onto the body, creating a v in the front and the back. Since I want this to be more than a summer sweater, I discarded this thought.

The other idea is to provisionally cast on for the back and sleeves as if making a shrug. Then knit up to the shoulders and factor in the neckline and work down to the end end of the armhole in the front. I'll have the live stitches to continue in the round for the body and I can graft the sleeves close.

I measured a 3/4 length sleeve sweater and got the desired measurement. Now I have to crunch some numbers and factor in some initial armhole shaping.

Let the games begin.