Pretty Perfect Weekend

...No bugs and dark early enough to be enjoying the fire and marshmallows way before 10:00 p.m.! You can't do that in July!

...On the dock without an umbrella as the warm sun is balanced by a temperate September breeze. 'Can't do that in July either!

(What a lucky girl! Her Dad is happy to haul out a couple of pieces of furniture after all had been stowed away for the winter over our last frigid visit two weeks ago!)

...Even the drive home at the end of it all was beautiful!

On top of all this, I had the fortitude to work exclusively on a big swatch for Hauser. (The tubular cast on, which took a few tries doubled my automatic swatching cast on from 40 stitches to 80. (Ooops!)

I'm using remnant Tinder yarn for this swatch - also Galway Heather - like the red yarn in which I plan to knit the sweater. I've read how two colourways of the same yarn can yield slightly different gauges - Maybe I'll see if that's in fact the case here!

I stuck with the 80 stitches, 'worked out the novel cable construction of the pattern and have a good sized piece of double moss stitch to measure for gauge. I'm close to both row and stitch gauge now, this morning I'll wet block it and find out for sure.

Thanks for dropping by today!

Shepherd and Shearer Step Four - Knitting Officially Begins Today!

Buoyed on by chatting with Fiona at the DKC and then her encouragement in the comments with a couple of (obviously) relevant tips from the Queen of Cables herself, I dove into working the set up rows of the first side.

Here's the thing though - if I wanted all cables to flow out of the 2x2 ribs, the ribs themselves -how they are arranged need to be a set up of sorts...

Planning this aspect, the math told me I needed to add 13 stitches that I would decrease away with k2togs in the actual set up row from my revised chart. That stitch count though meant extra inches of loosey goosey width around the bottom of the sweater. Not good. So I used a soft, long tail cast on for stretch on a smaller (4mm) needle and knit the waist band pretty firmly, working up the whole 2.5" depth of the ribbing I've chosen to anchor the design. (The guy's over 6' tall - he needs and can carry something pretty substantial) This allowed me to gauge how well the waist band would/could do its natural "thing" - pull in but also be able to stretch out.

Then I held my breath and measured and holy mackerel, it worked!

After that I moved up to 5mm straights (I prefer their firm stability over a wobbly thin circular cable when lots of counting is required) to work the vertically swatched cabled elements now having to follow one after the other in a sequence across with the width of the waist.

I knew the stitches between the elements and on either side of the cable panel were my concern at this point as was making sure I had edges that would work together when the sweater is assembled.

You won't believe what happened....that worked out too! So then it was off the crowded straight, onto a nice roomy circ. and before I knew it I was at the end of the first 6 row chart and able to just see clearly how those ribs flow!!!

(FYI The central orange marker denotes the location of the 2 purls that would be worked together to form the centremost stitch of the sweater front and central cable motif. The pink markers above that are either side of that now single purl stitch that became one stitch from two behind that first cable cross.

The two orange markers bracketing that central one, are the points at which I cheated by placing the centre point of each major side cable, two purl stitches apart rather than right together as the pattern is written, to facilitate the flow of the ribbing into those elements.

I successfully fought the urge after that to just plow on, instead, setting that piece aside and casting on to knit the second panel's 16 rows of ribbing. Next I'll do the first 6 row chart for that side while every thing's still fresh in my mind and then I'll be able to sit back, relax and enjoy multiple inches of delicious creamy, woolly cabling.

Once I get a bit of length established on the first panel I'll use it to do some measurements on My Beloved and sort out how the cables will work with and around the shaping for armholes and neck.

Thanks to Fiona for the encouragement and tips! Thanks to you for dropping by!

Shepherd and Shearer Step Three - Swatching

Little Swatch. Big Job.

It was no simple "check the needle size for gauge" kind of swatch job over this past extra (Fri. through Mon.) long weekend.

Rather it was working to fill a swatch with deceit and deception - create an impression that the elements of the 91-stitch cabled panel that adorns sweater front and back flow from a 2x2 ribbed border. (Said border not used in said pattern you see.)

I've never knitted such a lie! I was an utter innocent but no more...

I hadn't a clue what to do as I started but armed with the words from Asplund's blog..."try as much as possible" to make the ribbing work with the cables I tried to just dive in with an open mind as to what "try" might entail.

In the end I created stitches where they did not belong, p2tog-ed behind many a crossing where none was called for and so, naturally had to cast on more than really needed.

I changed a field of ribbing between cables over to a more usual purled background .

In one instance I had to accept one treatment wouldn't start with diverging cables side by side but rather slightly apart then I decreased the extra 2 purls out of existence on the next row.

Blasphemy! How dare I challenge THE DESIGNER?

I got over that, I "dared" and I did it!

Now I'm onto a larger kind of swatching project.  Having determined the revised total number of stitches I need, I cast them on and marked where each cable element should start. Atop just a few rows of ribbing I'm now seeing if my revisions and new stitch count will play out correctly across the full width of the front panel. Once I have that nailed I'll knit the first few rows of the chart then cast on and get the back to the same point while the "lies", while duly noted on paper, are still fresh in my mind and hands. Then I'll knit up a couple of cabled rectangles/prepare to tackle revising the necklines.

I have thought the neckline through and done a lot of math around it but I've taken it as far as I can without having something concrete to hold up and consider. So that's the plan. Just wish I was looking at another 4 day weekend to devote to this!

Thanks for dropping by today!