irony.

My first knitted pocket! I've never in fact knitted a pocket before but this is (was... see below) to be the sweater on which I mindlessly follow directions. Therefore, without thinking, I knit a pocket lining, also useful as a guage swatch, and followed the directions literally about stopping halfway through the row and knitting the ribbing edge, then continuing with the lining behind. Pretty neat, same principle as a mitten thumb when you go wrist up. I like the way this sweater feels, and with a sudden cold snap I could picture myself actually wearing the thing, which made me eager to make some progress. The color by the way is much richer than in the photos; sort of a peachy yellow with flecks of soft red. After a cozy afternoon of enjoying yarn and cables, I stopped to evavluate the cardigan front:

This is not a trick of the camera. The front band is shorter than the side seam. Much shorter--a matter of inches--and I'm only about halfway through the total length. (d*mn). The wishful thinker in me says this will block out, no problem. The quasi-experienced knitter in me looks at the springiness of the yarn, the difference in stitch patterns, and says no way. The bullfrog chorus is tuning up, just as I was feeling so comfortable in relative competence.

This is one of those moments when I am reminded why I so rarely follow patterns. I read and re-read the instructions, and no way could I make them come out to say anything other than that this should be a moss stitch border. I know from previous experience that moss stitch has a much higher row count than other stitches, but I figured ok, they must know what they are doing, they already knit the sweater, right? Well.... even so, maybe it won't work for me. It could be the moss stitch, it could be the slip stitch in the middle of the button band that is pulling things together. Either way, I don't think this is going to block out. (If you know otherwise, *please* tell me! I could save a lot of rework.) Besides, much as I like the idea of following instructions at this point, when I have so many other things going on, maybe I don't really want two button bands of two thicknesses each lying on top of one another when I close the sweater. It looks like another start of the left front is called for. I swatched seed stitch and twisted rib, throwing in a few buttonholes for practice. It is one of those doodly unphotogenic swatches, so you are spared pictorial evidence. A ribbed button band could follow the stitch established in the bottom rib and move seamlessly right into the collar. That sounds like the best choice. All I really have to do is recalculate the number of stitches to cast on, and do the whole thing over. On the bright side, a rework will allow me to reknit this

Barring other problems I'd have let the pocket lining be loose and pouchy, but it will lie better if knit with smaller needles so it more closely matches the actual size of the pocket opening. Cables do draw in--I suppose these sorts of details are the difference between so-so patterns and the really good ones.

And now, perhaps the dullest swatch you will ever see:

Plain. White. Wool. I call her Vanilla Jane. In looking for off white lightweight wool in the stash, all I found was some coned yarn from forever ago (from Robin & Russ, when I used to take day trips to drive from Portland to McMinville, so you know how long ago that was!). I bought it for weaving. Used as is, it could be knit with size 0 or so needles, but there are limits to my indulging dullness--no way am I going to slog through a stockinette stitch sweater at that gauge. I doubled it and tried size 5's and it's fine, and a much more reasonable knitting prospect. As soon as I started to actually calculate stitch counts and so on, I started thinking about ways I could make it more interesting: some kind of border or hem, maybe a lace panel up the front, a cable somewhere--and I strictly reined myself in. This thing, when/if it comes into being, is strictly a utilitarian sweater. Might have to be knit under tables and in uncomfortable lecture chairs. No stitch patterns, no fancy quirks. It is an exercise in restraint. My one concession to fanciness will be tubular cast on and cast off.

This post is so that later I can remind myself of good intentions.

Comments

[claudia]

Nope, I don't think it will block out either. Thanks for teaching me about the compacted row gauge of moss stitch...seriously, I did not know that.

[diana]

Yeah, there's no way that's going to block out. What a pain!