Finally it is Off the Needles!!!!!!

I declare this cabled cardigan done. It is far from perfect, the sleeves/shoulder/yoke area was poorly executed due to a complete lack of planning on my part (stupid move), and the hood area doesn't lie right on my back, but I can't bear the thought of any more garter stitch. The entire back, the sleeves, the "yoke" area, and the hood are all garter stitch and I am SO done with it.

This sweater is a recreation of a sweater I saw on a television show. This is my first sweater knit without a pattern. I used Berroco Ultra Alpaca Light on size 2 needles for the cuffs and bottom ribbing, size 5 for the remainder of the sweater. Nearly 14 skeins of yarn were used for this project (nearly 2000 yards).

Cabled Cardigan

While it hasn't been making much of an appearance here, I have continued work on my cabled cardigan. This project hasn't gotten much face time because the sleeves and back are all simple garter stitch and not very photo worthy. I have, however, managed to finish the back, 2 sleeves, and the left front all up to the point of the arm hole shaping.I have also found some buttons to use for the cardigan. They are square and match the color of my yarn fairly well. So far I have used 9+ skeins of Berrocco Ultra Alpaca Lite.

The left and right fronts of the cardigan mirror each other, with the bobble patterns running up along the garter stitch button band. The cables that are next to the bobble stitch motif twist in opposite directions to continue the mirrored effect.

I really like the look of the edging on the sweater, but I am SOOOOO happy to be done with it.

I still have no idea how this will actually look when it is being worn. It looks extremely unflattering and boxy in all these photos, but I am hopeful that it will look okay when it is done.

Saturday's weather here was lovely, so I was able to spend some time outside reading and relaxing.

Minor Setback

Progress on my cabled cardigan was happening swiftly. The left front reached the point for joining the sleeves (assuming I make this a yoke style sweater) and the back was rapidly approaching that point too. As I continued knitting, something was nagging the back of my head, the back was looking a large. I kept telling myself that it wasn't really as large as I thought and that I want the sweater to have some ease. I want the cardigan to be somewhat loose and very cozy feeling. Therefore I kept knitting. I did some waist decreases and I started with increases, I had only a couple of inches left before the back was done. Then, I held the back up against my body...

The back is beyond being just a little too big. The back is way beyond the amount of ease that I want built into the sweater. The back had to be frogged back to the ribbing, there was nothing else left to be done.

On a non-design note, I am going backpacking in October. I bought some hiking boots (which I am now trying to break in) and some other stuff for the trip. After buying the hiking boots I discovered that the Nancy Bush socks I am working on will match the boots and a pair of pants I bought for the trip. Additionally, the socks are at just the right leg height for the fancy top to stick up above the boots. Therefore, I have to get the socks finished before I go on my trip. I finished the first sock this weekend and immediately cast on for the second.

Cabled Cardigan

Well, I decided to go with the moss stitch diamond cable motif for my cardigan. So far, I am liking it well enough. I have finished the easy bit with the left front and now have to figure out what to do about the armscythe shaping and to figure out how to make it a yoke type sweater.

While I consider that I am going to start the back of the sweater. The back is going to be without cables and will simply be garter stitch above the fancy rib bit.

For my traveling project I have a sock. The sock has a fancy cuff and is pretty much stockinette stitch for the rest. It is a Nancy Bush sock, the Traveler's Sock from Knitting on the Road.

Finally, I think I made my final Fenway appearance for the season :-(

A Rant and a Cable Swatch

Last week was one of those weeks that couldn't end soon enough. It was filled with literal and figurative headaches, most of which I won't get into here. The week ended with a formatting problem with an appellate brief which lead me to the discovery that my cell phone was out in the 'burbs, where I work, while I was in the city, where I live. After some thought I decided to try going the weekend, or at least part of it, cell phone free. I was amazed as the days went on, at how much I have come to rely upon the cell phone in my daily life. I am certainly old enough to remember a time when no one had these things, now, I can barely do without one. My cell acts as my watch, as my means of communication, and my means of checking Red Sox scores when I am out trying to have a life.

Another problem with the week/weekend was the discovery that my living room overhead light no longer works. I knew that it had a problem on Thursday night, I pretty much forgot about it on Friday (I went out after work then came home and fell asleep early, so the lack of light didn't bother me). On Saturday, I went to buy new light bulbs, then when dusk started to fall, I tried putting the new bulbs in, and low and behold....still no light. I tried an old bulb out in my bedroom, and the old bulb worked. Time, then, to call the landlord. Unfortunately, my landlord's telephone number was safely stored on my cell phone, which was out at my office. Par for the weeks' course.

On Sunday night, my cell phone was returned to me by one of the partners at my firm who happened to be going to the airport to pick someone up. Monday, a holiday, I called my landlady, and today someone should be coming to look at and fix the problem.

Enough ranting, sorry to bore you all with that stuff. I need opinions, please. I am working on recreating a cabled cardigan that I saw on a TV show. I am not wedded to doing exactly what I saw. The sweater had 3 cable motifs running up each front half. If you look at the photo on the left, the bobble cable runs along the button band (garter stitch), then the simple cable is next to the bobble cable, on the other side of the simple cable is a diamond patterned cable. The actual sweater has the moss stitch diamond cable that you see between the bobble and the simple cables. In lieu of that I was considering the other twisty diamond cable. This is where you come in, which diamond cable do you think will look better with the simple cable and the bobble cable?

Thanks a million!