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cimoreneI love cable sweaters and I want about 20 of them. Wax is fast and good at knitting cables - she knits faster than me at everything - and has made all my most elaborate cable sweaters, but her favorite thing to knit is lace (she's making a lace blanket right now, but she took a break recently and made me a little shawl in a couple of days).
The reason I've started this black tweed Aran cardigan project myself is that she doesn't like having to modify the pattern too much, apart from fitting.
Last Tuesday was my monthly ordeal* where I have to get up early to take a 39-minute bus ride into Turku and attend the personnel meeting at the district office of the big volunteer organization which I work for (in the local office, but our local office is the biggest one in their district, and the only one big enough to afford an employee). (The ordeal isn't the meeting - there are only 6 colleagues and I'm comfortable with them and their premises now - it's the commute and the fact that I have to get up earlier.)
I had the beginnings of the black tweed Aran cardigan with me and I'd just finished the bottom ribbing and the first two setup rows the night before, so I had the opportunity to knit the first regular row, in pattern, of the cable pattern I designed (a two-strand twist and a 6-strand Saxon braid bordered with vertical ribbing and moss stitch on each front, and a centered Saxon braid on the back with 3-strand braids on either side of it, then two two-strand twists and then the moss stitch on the sides of the body).
So I can report that I had a hard time finishing the round before it was time for my stop, which means it took at least 35 minutes for that one single row! It's a row with a total of 36 2/1 or 2/2 cable crosses in it, but still, a bit unnerving. Hopefully with time I'll get faster at it. And of course, every row doesn't have all the crosses: the Saxon braid has crosses on every other row, but the other cables are full of crosses only every fourth row.
It started to get a bit cold again and I was complaining that none of my sweaters are hoodies, so I asked Wax to unravel the collar on the leaf-green zipper jacket.
This is an Aran-weight cardigan Wax made for herself over ten years ago with this pattern, but I've been the one who's worn it most of the time because she found it was too warm for her. It was made without the pockets and the front zipper was sewn in wonky, and she tried to make up her own collar design by wrapping the cable around sideways instead of knitting the ribbed turtleneck collar that it called for, but the collar opening was too wide and the cable too tall so it just flopped over (although it still looks better than the collar in the design, to be fair). However, it was basically the perfect fit, like an oversized hoodie, on me, and the yarn was great, so after years of hearing me complain that it would be perfect if only it were a hoodie with pockets and the zipper weren't wonky, Wax said we should just fix those things. So she ripped out the zipper and the collar, and I knitted a hood on - we even had two skeins of the original yarn still in the stash, miraculously surviving last summer's moth attacks. I ordered some more skeins of the same shade (different dye lot) and started making the pockets, and when that's done I'll need to wash and block it again to determine what length the zipper SHOULD be - evidently shorter than the one that's been in it, that's all we know so far. I'm pretty impatient to wear it, but I can't order the zipper until it's blocked, so I'm just going to have to bite my tongue, or whatever it is you do when you can't speed something up. The yarn, Drops Nepal, is a thick soft Aran wool-alpaca blend, and it's beautiful in the heather colors. Over the years it has worn surprisingly well and not even pilled all that much, so I'll definitely be making some more sweaters out of it in future.
* not that one
The reason I've started this black tweed Aran cardigan project myself is that she doesn't like having to modify the pattern too much, apart from fitting.
Last Tuesday was my monthly ordeal* where I have to get up early to take a 39-minute bus ride into Turku and attend the personnel meeting at the district office of the big volunteer organization which I work for (in the local office, but our local office is the biggest one in their district, and the only one big enough to afford an employee). (The ordeal isn't the meeting - there are only 6 colleagues and I'm comfortable with them and their premises now - it's the commute and the fact that I have to get up earlier.)
I had the beginnings of the black tweed Aran cardigan with me and I'd just finished the bottom ribbing and the first two setup rows the night before, so I had the opportunity to knit the first regular row, in pattern, of the cable pattern I designed (a two-strand twist and a 6-strand Saxon braid bordered with vertical ribbing and moss stitch on each front, and a centered Saxon braid on the back with 3-strand braids on either side of it, then two two-strand twists and then the moss stitch on the sides of the body).
So I can report that I had a hard time finishing the round before it was time for my stop, which means it took at least 35 minutes for that one single row! It's a row with a total of 36 2/1 or 2/2 cable crosses in it, but still, a bit unnerving. Hopefully with time I'll get faster at it. And of course, every row doesn't have all the crosses: the Saxon braid has crosses on every other row, but the other cables are full of crosses only every fourth row.
It started to get a bit cold again and I was complaining that none of my sweaters are hoodies, so I asked Wax to unravel the collar on the leaf-green zipper jacket.
This is an Aran-weight cardigan Wax made for herself over ten years ago with this pattern, but I've been the one who's worn it most of the time because she found it was too warm for her. It was made without the pockets and the front zipper was sewn in wonky, and she tried to make up her own collar design by wrapping the cable around sideways instead of knitting the ribbed turtleneck collar that it called for, but the collar opening was too wide and the cable too tall so it just flopped over (although it still looks better than the collar in the design, to be fair). However, it was basically the perfect fit, like an oversized hoodie, on me, and the yarn was great, so after years of hearing me complain that it would be perfect if only it were a hoodie with pockets and the zipper weren't wonky, Wax said we should just fix those things. So she ripped out the zipper and the collar, and I knitted a hood on - we even had two skeins of the original yarn still in the stash, miraculously surviving last summer's moth attacks. I ordered some more skeins of the same shade (different dye lot) and started making the pockets, and when that's done I'll need to wash and block it again to determine what length the zipper SHOULD be - evidently shorter than the one that's been in it, that's all we know so far. I'm pretty impatient to wear it, but I can't order the zipper until it's blocked, so I'm just going to have to bite my tongue, or whatever it is you do when you can't speed something up. The yarn, Drops Nepal, is a thick soft Aran wool-alpaca blend, and it's beautiful in the heather colors. Over the years it has worn surprisingly well and not even pilled all that much, so I'll definitely be making some more sweaters out of it in future.
* not that one
(no subject)
Date: 11 Feb 2023 08:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 11 Feb 2023 08:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 11 Feb 2023 09:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 12 Feb 2023 09:30 pm (UTC)I make my own shirts but those take like 2 days to make, so it's much less time investment than a sweater and also shirts don't last as long as sweaters, so I have been sticking to those and also knitting socks on a loom, which is fun and also tolerates being chucked aside randomly, unlike socks on needles.
(no subject)
Date: 16 Feb 2023 03:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 4 Mar 2023 11:01 pm (UTC)