cables | Love Is All You Knit

Dec 10 2014

Cabled Cardigan Progress

The last time I wrote about my Aidez Cardigan was when I was ripping out the back piece, after realizing that it was just coming out entirely too small. I am substituting yarns for a lighter weight yarn, and my teensy tiny swatch really wasn’t good enough for me to see how off my gauge really was. The pattern gauge was given in stockinette, while the majority of the back panel of the sweater is knitted in a cabled pattern, and we all know how differently cables behave than stockinette anyways. Honestly, I should have thought things through and swatched a little more carefully, but I was just anxious to get started. (Famous last words of a knitter, right?)

My back piece was coming out 14” wide, and for the pattern size small, it should have been 20” wide. I checked my gauge (now that I had a HUGE gauge swatch) and determined that if I followed the numbers for the pattern size XXL at the gauge I was getting, my back piece would come out 20” wide- exactly the size I needed it to be. I’ve since ripped, reknit and completed the back panel and when I measure it against a well-fitting shirt, it is pretty much dead on for the size I am aiming for.

Over the weekend, I cast on for the left front panel of the cardigan, which uses different cables than the back piece. I am again in love with the cables that are coming off my needles and I can’t stop putting my work down every few minutes to admire it. This has to be the best part about knitting a cabled cardigan in pieces—it never gets boring because as soon as you get used to a cable pattern it’s time to start on another piece!

Tagged aidez, berroco, cardigan, fringeandfriendsknitalong

Oct 12 2014

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Antics, cables, cardigans, knitting, wool, Yarn

Gauge wins again

I should have seen it sooner; that my poor sweater back was falling victim to that old baddie GAUGE. The classic symptoms of denial were present: tugging at the length, stretching out the bottom edge and telling myself it would relax with a good blocking. Then I woke up and decided to face the truth.

First I laid it out and gave it a steamy once over to relax it just a bit. Then I grabbed my measuring tape and assessed the damage. My sweater back was measuring 14″ wide and the schematic was telling me it should be more like 20″.

In my defense, I did do a gauge swatch. But it was pretty teensy, and it was in stockinette, which is how the pattern gauge was given. I think I would have been better off swatching in the cable pattern so I could account for how much the cables pull in on the overall fabric. I think the only positive I can pull outta this one is that now I have a really big gauge swatch. Off I go to start over again and mark this one a big fail.

Tagged aidez, fringeandfriendsknitalong, knitting, yarn

Sep 29 2014

Aidez Check In

One of my favorite things about knitting cabled pieces is that you soon find a rhythm to the cable patterns. Now that I’ve gotten two and a half repeats into the trellis chart of my Aidez cardigan, part of the #fringeandfriendsknitalong, I can knit through most rows without checking the chart. (Though I make sure to double check each time I’m doing a cable cross just to make sure I’m doing the right one!) I modified the two rope cables that are alongside the center trellis pattern, as the pattern calls for double wrapping the purls on the row before you complete the cable cross so that the stitches are elongated. I felt like mine were coming out kind of sloppy and so I just switched to a simple 2/2 left/right cross which doesn’t change the look all that much.

I think as soon as I get tired of working these particular cables on the back piece, it will be time to start the fronts and sleeves, which are comprised of entirely new cable patterns. Score another one for Team Seam because if I was working this as one seamless piece, I would probably be getting tired of all of the cables about now and still have a LOT of sweater left to knit.

Tagged aidez, berroco, fringe association, fringeandfriendsknitalong, knitting, wool, yarn

Sep 22 2014

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cables, cardigans, knitting, wool

Aidez Progress

It’s been just over a week since I started swatching my Aidez cardigan as part of the #fringeandfriendsknitalong, and I’ve worked my way through one repeat of the trellis pattern on the back piece; about 10”. I’m knitting for Team Seam and will be knitting the pattern as written; in pieces and seaming later. I always think that I prefer seamless sweaters because I dread seaming, but in all honesty this will be my first seamed sweater so it’s really too soon to tell. I decided to work this one with seams because I like the idea of seams helping a heavily cabled garment keep its structure, and I also didn’t feel like converting the pattern to seamless! I think that working smaller pieces will show progress more quickly and encourage me to keep on knitting. I’ve found myself putting my knitting down every few rows to admire the way a few cable crosses change the look of the whole piece. Did I mention I LOVE cabled knits?

Tagged aidez, berroco, cabled knits, fringe association, fringeandfriendsknitalong, knitting, yarn

Sep 16 2014

1 Comment

cables, cardigans, knitting, wool, Yarn

A Knitalong

I’ve decided to hop on the #fringeandfriendsknitalong train. If you haven’t heard about it, the details can be found on the Fringe Association blog. In short, it is a knitalong for the Amanda cardigan or other similar fisherman style cardigan. The knitalong includes a panel of experts who will be posting weekly on Karen’s blog with topics ranging from tips on yarn selection and swatching to seaming the finished piece.

I have decided to knit the Aidez pattern by Cirilia Rose and will be knitting it in Cascade Eco Wool.

Tagged fringeandfriendsknitalong

Nov 20 2013

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cables, designing, how to, knitting

Charting

There is an interesting interview today on the Brooklyn Tweed blog with Leila Raabe on her latest design for Wool People 6. I particularly enjoyed the discussion on how she uses Illustrator to create chart mockups during her design process. I’m currently working on a cabled design of my own, and have found that charting the pattern out before knitting it up has been really helpful in visualizing the finished piece. By using charts in my design process I’ve been able to play around with the design by moving different cables around within the overall layout and my idea has morphed into an even better design in the process.

Do you like knitting from charts? Though they seemed intimidating at first, I feel like my understanding of knitting took a huge leap forward once I learned how to read charts. If you don’t know how, I would urge you to take the time to learn. Links to a few good tutorials are below.

Knitty

Wise Hilda

Webs

Tagged cables, charts, knitting, yarn

Nov 11 2013

The Perils of Knitting While Touring With a Rock Band, or How to Fix a Mis-Crossed Cable

I guess it was bound to happen. I was knitting backstage in Amsterdam and I looked down at my knitting and noticed something funny. For the first time in my knitting life I had mis-crossed a cable.

My mistake was only a few rows back so I could have ripped back and reknit, but I was feeling kind of adventurous. I remembered the Yarn Harlot’s wonderful post about fixing a mis-crossed cable and decided to give it a go. I poured myself a whiskey drink and then took the cable stitches off the needles.

I dropped each of the cable stitches down past the point of the mistake. I momentarily questioned my decision when I looked at the mess I had made, but felt a little bit of hope after I placed the loose stitches back onto a DPN in the correctly crossed order.

I used a crochet hook, pulling the loose strand back through each of the stitches and placing them on another DPN until I worked my way back up to the top.