Knit Sisters

Last Tuesday evening, seized by a wild and restless longing, I started a new project.

 

This is the Nicola pullover from Simply Shetland, and I hadn’t even really been contemplating making it.  So, I found some likely yarn in the stash (that I had already swatched in stockinette) and cast on.  Of course, being constitutionally unable to leave well enough alone, I turned it into a cardigan and made a few other changes to the pattern:  set in the sleeves a bit more, included short row shoulder shaping, changed the neckline shaping, and naturally I plan on knitting the sleeves from the top down.  Other than that, it’s just like the picture.  (Except for the color and the yarn.)

Here’s my progress as of last night.

 

I started the first sleeve last night while watching The 4400.

Here’s a detail of the stitch pattern.  Simple, yet effective.

The yarn is Neveda “Alpaca,” 70% wool, 20% acrylic, 10% alpaca, which I bought several years ago from Elann.  Some while back, I tried to coerce this yarn into becoming an Alice Starmore Aran sweater, with somewhat limited success.  Alice Starmore, knitting genius notwithstanding, knits everything to a stunningly tight gauge, and this yarn, while making beautiful cables, had approximately the hand of cast iron at her gauge.  Plus, my hands cramped so bad from knitting to that gauge I could scarcely hold a pencil.  I ripped it out.  Now it is becoming the Nicola cardigan with very good grace.

And, because I spent a good portion of my weekend outside in 1 million degree heat watching Rob play tennis in a local tournament, (and he kicked some booty, I might add!) and one cannot reasonably knit a woolly sweater in 1 million degree heat, I also started a new pair of socks.

 

Isn’t this just the prettiest, girliest sock cuff imaginable?  Even Rob, secure in his masculinity as he is, has not been tempted to say “Are those for me?” 

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 12:57 pm and is filed under Casting on, Heavy sweaters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.