I am chugging along on Rogue. I thought about entering the Knitting Olympics, with the goal of finishing the body of the sweater, but the truth is I am a SLOW knitter, without a whole lot of time to knit, and I didn’t want to put that kind of stress on myself. So instead, I’m spectating, and making little goals for myself every day.

I have finished knitting the pockets themselves, and I have turned the hem under. This is what my progress on the body looks like so far:

It’s not much. This is going to take me a LONG time. I am not helped by the fact that I’m knitting the largest size, which meant I had to cast on (with a time-sucking provisional cast-on!) 218 stitches. This is, by far, the largest thing yet that I’ve knit. (Kiri is pretty big, I guess, but it starts off small and I haven’t gotten to the really huge part yet.)

I chose to do the k1,p1 ribbing for the hem stitch, and I made a slightly longer hem than called for in the pattern (15 rows vs. 12 rows). I used a provisional cast-on, did a reverse stockinette turning row, and then knit the hem and the body stitches together on the 15th row of the body. (I did the exact same for the sleeves.) I like the nice solid hem that this gave me.

I am really tickled with the construction of this pocket (which, of course, became pockets on the cardigan). I had to really think about how to modify the pockets, and I’m thrilled that I got it figured out without a single false start. It’s not that it was difficult; more, that I am still new at this, and I’ve never done anything like this before (this was my first pocket ever). Splitting the pocket into two wasn’t something that was intuitive or obvious for me. So I was tickled with my ability to figure it out without having to rip back even once. Add to that how cool I think the turning-under edges of the pocket are, and you have a knitter who was very entertained as she was knitting these little flaps of fabric.

Well, at least I have the sleeves done, so when I’m finished with the body I don’t have those to worry about!

Here are the sleeves, blocked and everything:

These have been done for . . . about six weeks now, I think. I finished them (did them both at the same time) and then had to take a time-out to work on the baby sweater for my friend. I blocked them on our guest bed, which seemed perfectly reasonable to me, but my hubby tripped out about it. “You stuck all those pins in our bed? That’s not good for it!” So I’m not sure where I’ll be blocking the sweater. (I am quite tempted to order a super-fancy-cool blocking board, but I have more restraint than that.)

A close up of the cable detail:

I like the yarn I’m using. It’s Kathmandu Aran from the Queensland Collection (in the beach color). It’s a “rustic” (I can’t come up with a better word; forgive my failure of vocabulary) kind of yarn — not very smooth, almost what I would call “homemade” looking. It’s got a lot of character, and I’m loving the way it knits up. It is quite soft and very pleasant to work with, but it’s not giving me perfect, even stitches and fabric (like the yarn I used for Trellis did) — and I like that. It’s not got super wild variations like the Noro I used once upon a time a long time ago (which I didn’t care for), but it’s got just enough to make it interesting. I’m really glad I chose this yarn for this sweater. I’m also really glad I picked up a pair of Addi Turbos to use with the yarn; for the smaller needle needed for the hem I’m using my Denises, and they are sticky with this particular yarn and make me even slower.

I knew I was going to ramble once I started talking about this sweater. I’m having quite an adventure; this might be the most fun I’ve had knitting yet. And I’m so excited that the end product is going to be an actual sweater just for me!

. . . Trellis!

Details!

• Pattern: Trellis, from Knitty.
• Yarn: Rowan Cashsoft Baby DK, which I found a dream to work with. I bought three balls. I used a wee bit more than two. I used some of the leftovers to make a hat.
• Needles: US 5, Denises
• Notes:I made the smallest size, and I used a slightly smaller than called for gauge to make the sweater smaller. This meant a little fiddling with the math on the sleeves and the armholes — if I had knit to the directed dimensions, my armhole would have been too tall for the sleeve cap (I’m afraid those aren’t the right words, but I’m on a limited time budget right now and will have to come back and fix it later) and my sleeves would have been way too long for the sweater. I also did a three-needle bind-off for the shoulders, rather than grafting, because I felt it would be stronger and “crisper.” I cast on for this on January 12, and I finished the seaming on February 2. (I took a break in there for almost a week that I didn’t knit at all because of illness.) I’m sure it would have gone much quicker without a cable needle, but as I mentioned in my last entry I could not seem to make my brain engage well enough to cross correctly. (I will be revisiting that and making it work when I get back to working on Rogue.) I had a BLAST knitting this. I loved watching the texture take shape, it was sooo quick and easy, and the yarn was lovely. I will probably make this sweater again.

When I finished seaming the sweater, my first thought was “It’s too small; I made it too small.” My husband came home and assured me that I was just forgetting how little new babies are. The baby for whom this was made is a wee one, less than 7 pounds, so I’m really hoping hubby is right and that it fits. The sweater is on its way now (all the way to Canada — I’d never had to fill out a customs form before I shipped this!), and if Mama takes one and gives me permission, I’ll post a photo of him modeling it once it arrives.

Coming soon . . . my Rogue adventures.