Row 35

Knitting on the Roosevelt Cardigan has been interesting.

 

Heads up to those who have it in their queue. Row 35 of the pocket is complicated/challenging. It has a cable right on the sloped pocket edge, where dropped stitches can be a nightmare, and yet where dropping stitches from a cable needle are more likely to happen. That particular row also has a cable that contains a decrease that must be done mid-cable. The whole maneuver looks innocent enough on the chart but actually accomplishing it is rather fiddly.

It truly is a challenging knit at this point, but I find it entertaining. Progress is slow because I'm only working on it for a while each morning while I have my coffee. Which reminds me -- I DID actually finish 2018's daily morning knit, the "My Year in Temperatures Scarf". I just haven't yet taken an adequate photo of it finished.

A Chance To Relax

My knitting, a glass of wine, a crackling fire, and soft music playing in the background. First time I've had a chance to truly relax since well before Christmas.


 

Side Tracked

Monday evening I set out to begin my Master Knitter Level II vest, but I was side tracked. The yarn I intended to use was a little too thick to get gauge without the fabric becoming too stiff. I then tried a ball of handspun, more on a lark than anything, seeing as handspun with its characteristic unevenness is a poor choice for an item where your knitting will be judged on stitch uniformity, but I just wanted to see if some day I could use it for that vest pattern.

The handspun was thinner than I expected and was not appropriate for the intended vest, BUT.....

....it's a perfect DK weight, and works for a pattern I've been wanting to knit in handspun for quite some time. This first piece is the back of a raglan, cabled hoodie. I will likely dye it a denim colour when I am finished with the knitting.

Sirdar "Jackets 8427"

Masters Monday - 5

Swatch 13 - Single Cross Cable, on the left.
Swatch 15 - Windblown Cable (knitter's choice), on the right.



Edited April 30, 2007 to add: Evaluators mentioned that the cast on in Swatch 13 may have been a little tight saying "note how the lower edge has rounded corners". And for Swatch 15 that there were "some tension irregularities in the reverse stockinette portion bordering the cable".

The rest of these, and many more attempts that were frogged, are not being handed in. They were just some of the background work that is involved with coming up with a finished swatch. I found Swatch 15 - "Your Choice of Cable" to be particularly labor intense as your choice has to fit within some rather strict guidelines. Finding a cable pattern that had a workable number of stitches, not too many rows, and could somehow be "balanced" on the swatch required a lot of research and experimentation.



At the top of this second picture (unblocked) is a tiny experiment with "Banded Cable" that I decided I didn't like. On the lower left is "Loose Five-Rib Band", which perhaps could have worked but I was having difficulty finding a point where it looked balanced top and bottom. In retrospect, it might have been okay. The swatch on the bottom right is of course, the "Windblown Cable" without the stockinette down the sides. I had it all completely done and blocked when I realized that when the instructions said "Place P2 on either side of the cable" that they might have wanted ONLY two purl stitches on either side, not ALL purl as I had done.