OK, so it's not a pattern from the book, but the yarn was reviewed here on 4/3/07: Madil Eden. The pattern is from Knitty.com, called Soleil. The bamboo yarn has gorgeous drape, a very silky feel, and is a good price ($6.95 at my LYS). Unfortunately, the sweater is a gift for my sister so I can't enjoy it. I'm seriously thinking of frogging another project with this yarn so I can make a Soleil for myself.
I took it for show-n-tell at my LYS. The owner of the shop insisted on trying it on so she could judge which size to make for herself, and printed off the pattern right then.
This was actually the first of three FO's this past week, you can see the other two on my blog http://www.catnurseknits.com/
I'm starting to swatch my Plum Tomato, with checkerboard purls instead of herringbone.
Well, as you can see, I'm making progress, thanks to the Columbia Knitting Meetup at Borders:) I had a blast knitting in front of my cup of coffee, and blabbing away about knitting and whatever else came to mind last night. It was a nice, cheap fun way to enjoy myself. And I had been a good doo-bee and got my work done, so there!
It's interesting that I started this on regular straight needles, in size 2 and had a hellacious time cramming all 352 stitches on even the 14" needles, but now using the size 4 circular (this one's an Addi-Turbo) the linen (green) seems to behave better. Plus, it doesn't hurt that the cables pull everything in a bit. I think I'm going to hem up the ribbing to tone down some of the linen's poofy-ness and then use a green i-cord edging for all the "raw" edges of the sweater to match the "roundness" of the turned up ribbing. We'll see. Why not try a new skill, right?
I just love the way this is coming along - a lot of fun because the pattern is easy to remember yet not boring and deadly as I fear stockinette would have been.
Happy Knitting everyone!
Joan a/k/a fuguestateknits
One thing about the Cables and Os pattern is that it's very forgiving. I'm having a lot of fun with the yarns and even though I'm not particularly thrilled to be knitting in stripes and I may have to do something about the linen ribbing, cotton yarn with the size 4 needles is a lovely combination. I'm getting good stitch definition and it's not a hard pattern to internalize, if you will. When I say forgiving, the only problem I seem to have consistently is remembering the yarn overs for the "O" part of the pattern - the mini lace column. I've learned that even if I miss one of them, it is ever so easy to simply correct on the wrong side without even having to tink back and fix it. I simply pick up a stitch as if to do a make 1, but I don't twist the stitch, thereby leaving the lovely little gap that makes the "O." Even the stripes are working out to a change every pattern repeat - though I may change the order of the colors as I get toward the midsection. And finally this I should have mentioned in my initial postings: when dividing for right front, back and left front, I decided to divide along the pattern repeats with the idea that the two additional stitches I've left on each side of the front (total of four) need to be accounted for in the armhole shaping and when it comes time to divide front and back. It's just a lot easier to do it that way while completing the bulk of the bottom, more straightforward knitting. Does this make sense to you? I sometimes have trouble putting the pictures in my head into words (I hear there's medication for that, must look into it.....)Crap! you're right! That should have been 4 times. I checked back
through all my drafts, and I had written it as 6, (6, 8, 8, 8, 8)
throughout, but obviously the math doesn't work that way!
Because I used AppleWorks (since uninstalled and I don't know what we
did with the install disks), I can't check the spreadsheet notes to
figure out where the mistake originated... all my text notes show
that I miscounted, and evidently thought that rows 77-84 of the side
chart were only 6 rows, not 8. The tech editor must have done the
same thing, too!
So, the Side chart should indicate that the repeats of rows 69-76 are
4 (4, 5, 5, 6, 6). Here's the logic:
Total rows before bind-offs according to Chart A count: 140 (140,
156, 156, 164, 164)
Side:
4 rows of foundation pattern (chart rows 1-2)
8 rows of patt (chart rows 3-10 x 1)
32 (32, 40, 40, 40, 40) rows of rep (chart rows 11-18)
50 rows of patt (chart rows 19-68 x 1)
--at this point, we've worked 94 (94, 102, 102, 102, 102) rows; 46
(46, 54, 54, 62, 62) to go before bind-off--
32 (32, 40, 40, 48, 48) rows of rep (chart rows 69-76 x 4 (4, 5, 5,
6, 6))
8 rows of patt (chart rows 77-84 x 1)
--this adds 40 (40, 48, 48, 56, 56) rows; another 6 rows to work
following rows 85-92 as necessary--
Thinking about it, I'm positive I kept counting rows 77 to 84 as 6
rows, because I recall I thought that it would end neatly with row 84
for the smallest size, and then I must have incorporated that set of
rows into the repeat count by accident. You could, if you wished,
treat this as a 5x repeat, which means that instead of working rows
77-84 before the bind-off, you'd only work rows 77-82; on the bind-
off row, you'd integrate three double decreases. This would make the
cable pattern fill the underarm all the way up to the bind-off,
rather than leaving a 6-row gap of reverse stockinette across those 9
rows. [edit: she means "those 9 stitches"]
Well. Considering the complexity of the pattern, I'm grateful that
you found only this and that symbol in row 1 in Chart B...
Thanks for forging on ahead!
Jenna
