Cable Aran Shrug the Third

Cloud is stuffed in a bag until I feel strong enough to tackle finishing it. Finding errors in the rib was very disheartening. I will finish it. Just not yet.

Having made one cabled Aran shrug that was too big - the shruggigan as my S-i-L calls it - and one that was too small, the red version that's sitting in a cupboard waiting for a recipient, it's now time to make the third version. The one that's just right. It's knit on 4.5 mm needles, using four strands from a cone of cream wool. As you can see, it looks a bit industrial with the four lines of yarn running up from the containers and being twisted into a strand as it's knitted. The yarn feels lovely and looks OK as well. Because of the four strands, I am using a needle to cable with, but I have stuck with purling backwards on the bobbles so that I don't have to turn the work every time and this is getting easier. Much easier and quicker, so a technique worth mastering. I know the cable pattern off by heart now, so that saves a bit of time as well - no staring at the chart and muttering.

Have been both sick and busy this week, so not much time for knitting - or blogging, but even snatched moments add up. 6 of the 12 panels are finished.

Another Walk to the Trash Can

Andy's ribwarmer is done. The good news is that he likes the fabric and it fits him perfectly. The bad news is that the added collar and sports vent look naff. Truly, horribly naff. I think they are too small. The original instructions are for a tiny rib warmer - and I followed those instructions for the variations, but I upscaled the body of the garment to fit Andy. Threw it, and the rest of the cone away, heaving a deep sigh. From now on, I will test variations on tiny sample test pieces - there's a lot of knitting in a man's ribwarmer.

Sick Knitting

A perfectly horrible week. Andy & I got a stomach bug, followed by a vile cold. When I did feel well enough to pick up my knitting again I'd gone wrong. My excuse is being driven demented by toothache - I thought I'd followed Meg Swanson's instructions for the knee length rib warmer, but clearly I hadn't. I wanted to make the garment a bit longer so it would fit Andy, but I'd over compensated and it was 50" around, because making it longer had made it wider as well. All that frogged yarn went in the bin. I don't actually like knitting with this yarn - it's rough and smells faintly of machine oil. It's the knitting equivalent of eating your sprouts. Once the rib warmer is done, the rest of the cone goes in the bin.

Knitting with Toothache

I've had trouble with a crown all week so I put aside Cloud, which is all sewing up and discovering problems, and started another rib warmer. This one is for Andy. It has the collar, and the sports vent (for gentlemen) and follows Meg Swanson's instructions for the knee-length rib warmer in order to get it long enough to fit him. (Thinks: should I go back and insert the word 'hopefully' in front of the word 'fit'?) Nice peaceful garter stitch.