Three Years in the Making

I started a cabled sweater for Paul in early 2007. I never got past a third of the first sleeve. Doubts about the sleeve shaping (it looked a bit bat wing-like) and the start of the warmer weather and it's-a-new-season-and-look-at-all-those-fun-new-projects were just too much for me.

Flash forward three and a half years later and I've started a different pattern for Paul, out of yarn I bought a year ago.

Kim nailed it when she commented that I seem to be in a cable mood. I've started a basic pullover with a Drops design and Berroco Ultra Alpaca. The styling is classic guy sweater - a bit of cabling but nothing over the top. I'm knitting it at a finer gauge - they called for 17 over 4 inches and I'm getting 20. I did a few gauge swatches and I liked the 20 better. I knit the looser gauge on US 7s but liked the tighter fabric that I got on US 6s. Both swatches have been washed.

To compensate I've widened the cables from 5x5 to 6x6 (the swatches are in 5x5) because I didn't want to lose the chunky look of the original design. I'm also knitting it in the round and I'm making the width uniform from ribbing to under arms - the original was narrower at the ribbing and widened up to the underarm. I'll probably do more of a mock turtleneck but I'll see once I get to that point.

So far I'm really enjoying it - worsted weight grows so quickly when you've been knitting with a lot of fingering weight. I'm ready to start my second hank so I'm at least 10% done.

I always have trouble keeping track of cables when knitting in the round, but this pattern is different. The lines of seed stitch for the recessed part of the ribbing make it really easy to count where I'm at. I'm marking the end of each repeat with a removable stitch marker so it's quick to check if I'm ready to do a cable row.

I've also had to break out a tool I haven't used in a *long* time - a cable needle. I tried knitting those big cables without a cable needle but it was more hassle than it was worth. This is one cable the requires a cable needle (for me - ymmv).

My goal is to finish by Rhinebeck - that'll mean 2 sweaters by then (one for Paul and one for me). Right now that's completely doable if I don't get distracted. I'm planning to switch it up a bit with a sock and a scarf so I don't have big-yarn-burnout. Plus I want to knit a pair of mitts to wear at the festival as well.

As of today I have just over 11 weeks til Rhinebeck. Doable but not luxurious. Especially since I haven't 100% committed to *my* Rhinebeck project. At least the yarn is on order and I've narrowed it down to maybe 5? projects. Oy. Why do we always do this to ourselves?