11.18.07
Finished Object: Cable-Down Raglan
Welcome to the November 2007 issue of Lickety Knit Monthly! Don’t forget to lock in your 2008 subscription soon to guarantee yourself the lowest rates. [Disclaimer: Lickety Knit Inc. cannot guarantee a full year of issues. Subscription fees are non-refundable.]
Our cover story this month: the first adult sweater from my Year of Sweaters!
Pattern: Cable-Down Raglan by Stephanie Japel from the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits, second-smallest size
Yarn: Rowan Silk Wool DK, colorway “Greenwood,” just over 7 balls (only 785 yards!)
Notes: I looked like an imbecile in every one of the several dozens photos that I made Matt take. For about 10 low-self-esteem minutes I declared that this was the only one I liked and was willing to post. In the end I chilled out a little and just decided to go heavy on the headless shots. I have talked before about how uncomfortable it makes me to put pictures of myself on the blog because I feel as though I might be perceived as self-absorbed, but when it comes right down to it, I’m terribly vain and I can’t bear to post pictures in which I look as though I just ate a bug or emerged from solitary confinement or got collagen injections to my whole face or got attacked by bats. All of which I managed to convey in my photos today.
Oh, you wanted notes on the sweater, not on me and my appearance? Fine. My mistake. Here we go, then: I am mostly very pleased with this sweater. The top-down construction was really easy, leaving the intricate cables as the only challenge (and even they were pretty easily memorized). It knit up amazingly quickly: Casting on for the swatch through unpinning the finished sweater from the blocking board took just 29 days. Best of all, it is entirely wearable, which I’ve attempted to demonstrate with these action shots. It fits, it’s comfortable, and it’s practical.
Unsurprisingly, given the content and the manufacturer, the yarn was great. It knit up evenly, it has that lovely silky sheen, and it can be worn right against the skin. I bought it for 25 percent off at a LYS Superbowl Sale last February, which helped make the steepish price a little less painful.
A couple drawbacks to the pattern: first, the long cable repeats made it a little difficult to customize the length of the sleeves and body, assuming you don’t want to end abruptly in the middle of a cable. And because the two cable designs are, oddly, not the same length (30 rows and 28 rows), it’s difficult to get them to end at the same time at the hem unless you’re willing for the sweater to be a floor-length ballgown. I stressed out about this a lot, ultimately choosing to knit the first 6 rows of a new repeat of the main cable while finishing a repeat of the auxiliary cables, though if I weren’t too proud to admit it, I think I’d say that in the end maybe it doesn’t matter as much as I thought it did.
Second, too much purling. I know I’m not the only one who would rather scrub grout than purl for long stretches. I didn’t entirely realize what I was getting into until it was too late to turn back, however, and in the end I’m glad I’m persevered. That’s not to say I won’t avoid purling on DPNs ever again; if there is a knitter out there who can do so without getting ladders, I don’t want to know about it because my fragile knitting self-esteem depends on believing that it simply isn’t possible. I tugged and cajoled and gave stern looks, all to no avail.
So what did I do? Well, let’s just say this post article wouldn’t be complete without an ode to blocking. Dearest blocking, does a knitter have a better friend in all the world than you? I admit that I doubted you: I looked at all the flaws of my finished and unblocked sweater and I thought, this is insurmountable. The uneven stitch columns in the purling, the asstastically uneven cables, the absence of drape, the too-short sleeves, the bad hair it gave me when I wore it…I really thought you’d met your match.
Never again will I doubt you. You are my savior, blocking, and you deserve to have a religion founded upon your miraculous works.
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What other goodies do we have in this issue of Lickety Knit? How about the announcement of the winner of the contest from my last post? “Whaaa?” you all say. “A contest?? I don’t remember a contest!” That’s right, you don’t. Because I am introducing a new contest concept into the knitblogosphere that I expect will catch on like wildfire: the secret contest. A contest in which the blog author decides on the parameters, does not share them with his or her readers, and then surprises and delights everyone with the simultaneous announcement of the contest, the prize, and the winner. I figure I stand to win a lot more prizes this way, given my poor track record at actually jumping through the hoops required to enter most blog contests (you know, like posting a comment before a stated deadline — who comes up with these draconian rules???), but it is not for myself that I propose this new style of contest. It is for…well, okay, it’s for me.
Anyway, the winner of my inaugural secret contest is: Specs! Specs correctly identified the source of my very obscure reference in my last post to a 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 called “Prince of Space.” I had thought about having an official contest, but I realized that the quote I referenced was easily Googleable, so I decided that if anyone identified it anyway, I’d give that person a prize. Therefore, Specs, you have won two skeins of Koigu PPPM sock yarn in the color of your choice! Congratulations! Email me to let me know your choice and your shipping address.
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I want to belatedly thank all the wonderful people who nominated me as a Rockin’ Girl Blogger over the last several months. The fact that I have not acknowledged this or nominated any RGBs of my own clearly makes me a Jackass Girl Blogger. Seeing as that particular meme is long past, I think I will not try to make amends now, but please accept a free yearlong subscription to Lickety Knit as a token of my sincere thanks for nominating me. (That came out a lot more sarcastically than I meant it to. I really did appreciate being singled out, especially since I clearly don’t deserve it!)
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Coming up in the December issue*: progress on my new project, the Henley Perfected sweater from the Winter 2007 Interweave Knits. I am reclaiming the yarn (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino) from the now-despised Gatsby Girl Pullover. What do you think? Can I really make two adult sweaters before the Year of Sweaters is out? (And by adult, I just mean grown-up sized, notwithstanding everyone’s tasteful catcalls provoked by my knockers in my last post.) (Sorry, Dad, for bringing that up again.)
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
*Yes, I will eventually give up this joke, but seeing as I can’t think of any new ones right now, I figured I’d try to eke a little more out of this one.
