pattern: baby cables and big ones too
yarn: lang soft shetland, charcoal (05), 10 balls
needles: 3.75mm, 24" and 16" circs
date started: 09.21.08
date finished: 11.13.08

finally, a sweater with no finishing! all I had to do was weave in the ends and block it and it was ready to go. it feels like I've had a streak of good luck with all these sweaters, the patterns have been straight forward and easy to follow.
my gauge was a little off, so I just knit a size smaller knowing it would come out in my size. I think I ended up with an inch of ease, or a little less, on this one.

I only hit one snag and it might have been because of my row gauge - I'll admit I've been too lazy to check while knitting. if I would have finished the cable, the sleeves would have been way too long on me. I couldn't finish the cable on the first sleeve, so I tried to start the cabling earlier on the stockinette portion of the second sleeve. I almost made it, but not quite. it'll just have to be part of the 'design' of the sweater, no one other than knitters would know anyway right?

I originally bought the soft shetland for the ram's horn jacket from knitting nature. once the yarn came though, I decided that the fabric was too thin and un-jacket like for the ram's horn and I wanted to knit this sweater pretty badly. it's sold as a worsted or heavy worsted yarn, but I don't feel like I lost any drape by going down to a much smaller needle size.

this yarn definitely gives the sweater a more rustic feel than the original one. it's tweedy-ish and soft, but not buttery merino soft. a warmer sort of softness, if that makes sense. since it doesn't have the plumpness of a merino yarn, the cables almost fade into the stockinette sections. a feature I was first worried about, but have since grown to love.

the only real question I have on this sweater, what to wear underneath? it's been tough finding shirts that work with this neckline. so far tanks seem the way to go.

Posted by bitter purl at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

but not on fo photos, just more knitting. last week I realized that all I had were sweater parts and nothing on the needles, so I quickly cast on "baby cables and big ones too" as my fall project. I'm using lang soft shetland that I originally bought for the ram's horn jacket. even though I got gauge for that project, I didn't really think it created what I think of as "jacket fabric". I want something a little more substantial for that project. luckily it works for this sweater, though I would have rather used a yarn with a little more plumpness to it. the soft shetland is pretty splitty when it comes to cabling and the larger cable gets a little flat in the stockinette section. we'll see how it turns out once I block it.

I'm only about two inches into the body since taking that pic. progress has been slow around here because of dobby, guests, and the finishing assembly line I've had going for the last week. so far I've blocked the body pieces of the pentagon aran cardi and the sleeves of the uneck pullover. my plans for today are to seam the body of the cardi while I block the rest of the pullover - all while getting some knitting time in for the cabled sweater. and, oh yeah, house/work stuff. right.

Posted by bitter purl at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)