Cabledy Cables

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

I have cracked the code on the cable panel for the Wildflower Cardigan! I can't wait to knit up a swatch to see if it's right.

Of course I couldn't wait to start the cardigan itself so after some rough sketches and gauge-number crunching, I cast on for the ribbing (which I lengthened from the original cardigan) this weekend. I'm now two rows into the stockinette. I made some changes about where the cable panel starts too. Actually, I made changes all over the place for this thing...

Unfortunately, my design skills aren't too polished. Only after knitting like ten rows of ribbing that I should have had an uneven number of stitches in order to end up with the stockinette part of the ribbing next to the buttonband on both sides. Oh well, live and learn, I guess. I'll deal with it later, I think. I'd just frog it, but I used the absolutely awesome tubular cast-on and that's a lot of freaking work for a sweater-sized cast-on!

My dad's socks are also trucking along: I'm at the toe on the first one.

Please Forgive Me

Saturday, October 20, 2007

I really had planned to post pictures of my new sweater way back when but then when I blocked it, it was a little small so I had to reblock it. In the meantime, I had tons of homework and tests and was a little worried that even if I blocked it bigger it wouldn't fit and I would be sad. So I put it off. Then once it was blocked and I knew that it fit we kept making plans to do a photo shoot and kept forgetting. So one day last week I just grabbed Kurt's camera (it's sad that my son has a nice digital camera and all I have is a nice camera phone) and took a few pics.



D'ya like that shot of my arm? And my extremely messy desk in the background? Homework, homework, homework, it never ends this semester.

Since the sweater has been finished I've started a couple of new projects. I'm knitting the Harlot's Earl Grey socks for my Dad for Christmas with the green Jawoll I bought a couple months ago.

My other project is a little... ambitious, but I'm very excited about it. I'm planning a version of the Wildflower Cardigan from Anthropologie. It will be in brown with yarn I got just recently at ANOTHER going out of business sale - this time Ben Franklin Crafts right here in my town. I'm going to do the flower stem in green and the flowers in white. Zooming in on the photo shows some interesting details. It looks like the buttonband is actually crocheted and the little ruffle made just by increasing in single crochet rows. I could be wrong though, I haven't really studied this thing too much.

I've never designed a yarn from scratch before and I've certainly never tried to knock-off a sweater before. I have mixed feelings about it. I love a challenge but I feel bad that I'm sort of cheating and not just buying it. But at the same time, who would want such a beautiful sweater that has nylon in it? 100% wool is the way I'm going. Yummy warmth. Not to mention that I can't justify $128 on a sweater but can totally justify $70 on yarn to make a sweater. (Not that that is a good reason to knock-off a sweater, but it is one of my reasons.)

So yeah, that's what's going on here. Today I'm going to the gym, doing much homework and studying for a test next Friday, and then hopefully finding some time to vacuum the house, knit a little, and finish reading a book. Hope everyone that's at Rhineback right now had a grand time!!