Cable Front Cardigan

Begun: January 25-ish, 2006
Finished: March 26, 2006
I feel like I need to justify taking 2 months to knit a sweater. There was the Olympics in between. And the teal zippered cardigan. And... never mind. It took 2 months.
Yarn: Custom Woolen Mills Mule Spinner 2 Ply in color #03
Pattern: Cable/Rib Cardigan from Vogue Knitting Holiday 2004
Modifications: The ribbing on the cabled pieces changed to flow directly into the cables; added length to body and sleeves, used i-cord rather than twisted cord for toggle loops

The yarn, which I love, was slightly tacky (i.e. tacky=sticky, not tacky=Britney Spears) and quite "rustic" (i.e. there were pieces of straw in places), which made cabling a challenge. After washing, the stitches filled out and the yarn softened up. I will probably acquire more of this yarn for projects, er, for next winter...



(Not to mention the fact that I got a little panic-y back when I was starting the sweater and aquired 2 extra skeins, just in case)(this was at the time of the alpaca shortage crisis of January 2006)(so now i have 2 1/2 extra skeins)(I think I'll do a cabled vest with some of the extra)(Just not right now)(are you sick of the parentheses yet?)



I love this sweater. LOVE this sweater!! I think I will switch back and forth between this sweater and the teal zip-up cardigan for the next month or so.

If you have been paying attention (there will be a test) I am stuck in a rut have a tendency to lean towards raglan sleeved sweaters. Knit in the round. In one piece. There is a reason for this: I don't like having to construct a set-in sleeve sweater. I suck at it find it frustrating to say the least. BUT this sweater... The sleeve caps fit almost perfect!* There were almost no hitches in the seaming!** Happy knitter!!

Now to work on that Prairie Tunic. It's +6 today. If I didn't live in Calgary, I would assume that this was the beginning of warm weather. However, we will have at least one or two more big blizzards before spring really comes.

*I didn't notice until I was seaming the sleeve caps that the initial bind off for the sleeve cap didn't match the initial bind off for the arm holes for the body. A little fudging. Don't look too closely at the armpits.
**Due to the aforementioned disparity in sleeve cap/armhole bind-offs, the seaming close to the armpit area was a little wonky. Also, I noticed when I was seaming the sleeves that I did the increases differently on the two sleeves.