I've started a new project, something that caught me a little by surprise. I was getting some fabric cut a few weeks ago and was browsing through a Patons booklet. I found the most adorable cabled vest. I didn't buy the booklet, but thought about it several times and finally went back for it. I want to make the vest into a little tee, adding some sleeves, and I found the perfect yarn waaaay back in my stash for it:
I love the tweedy/heathery color, and it's sooo soft (real Shetland). I have a couple of Aran sweaters that I bought when I visited Innismore and Innisfree in 2000, and I remember watching the Aran women knitting, completely impressed not just by their skill, but their speed! These women rivaled machines! I like Aran sweaters and Aran wool, but I wanted something a little softer and more colorful for this project. So I cast on last night.
It's a tricky pattern. In an effort to save printed space, the directions are a little more than "pithy," as EZ would say, but you really have to wrap your head around the five panels, two with four-row repeats, two with eight-row repeats, and one with a thirty-two row repeat. So I get through the first four "set-up" rows and THEN I read that you're supposed to decrease on row three. Screw it, I'll decrease on row five (being constantly bugged by this fact, of course), and then when I got to about row seven or eight, realized I'd done a cable backwards! Aggghh! So I frogged back to the ribbing and now things are going better.
I started making notes on each row, then just on the odd numbered rows (since the evens are just reverse of the previous row). I just set up the start of each so I know which row of each of the five panels I'm doing, because it's pretty easy to forget. But I'm getting the hang of it, and also starting to memorize the patterns, which makes it a lot easier.
So far, I'm totally in love with it, and can't wait to finish. I'm debating on the sleeves though, and how to do them. There's a great article in the Winter IK about set-in sleeves that I plan to use, but I'm still trying to decide whether to do cables on them. Hmmm....something tells me I have a while to think about it!
I love the tweedy/heathery color, and it's sooo soft (real Shetland). I have a couple of Aran sweaters that I bought when I visited Innismore and Innisfree in 2000, and I remember watching the Aran women knitting, completely impressed not just by their skill, but their speed! These women rivaled machines! I like Aran sweaters and Aran wool, but I wanted something a little softer and more colorful for this project. So I cast on last night.
It's a tricky pattern. In an effort to save printed space, the directions are a little more than "pithy," as EZ would say, but you really have to wrap your head around the five panels, two with four-row repeats, two with eight-row repeats, and one with a thirty-two row repeat. So I get through the first four "set-up" rows and THEN I read that you're supposed to decrease on row three. Screw it, I'll decrease on row five (being constantly bugged by this fact, of course), and then when I got to about row seven or eight, realized I'd done a cable backwards! Aggghh! So I frogged back to the ribbing and now things are going better.
I started making notes on each row, then just on the odd numbered rows (since the evens are just reverse of the previous row). I just set up the start of each so I know which row of each of the five panels I'm doing, because it's pretty easy to forget. But I'm getting the hang of it, and also starting to memorize the patterns, which makes it a lot easier.
So far, I'm totally in love with it, and can't wait to finish. I'm debating on the sleeves though, and how to do them. There's a great article in the Winter IK about set-in sleeves that I plan to use, but I'm still trying to decide whether to do cables on them. Hmmm....something tells me I have a while to think about it!
2 comments:
What a pretty vest. What pattern book is that?
It's a Patons book, number 500846 "Cables."
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