Rainbow Dyed Details

When I finished the sleeve on my Dad's LoTech, I celebrated immediately by casting on the front of the BRDP. I was pretty motivated to get to that pattern stitch, and that 3" of ribbing that seemed to take days on the back moved much more quickly on the front. By the end of Saturday, I was about 1/3 the way up the front. I got a little more work in on Monday night, and finished up the front tonight. Here's the milestone shot:

Front of the Rainbow Dyed Pullover

Based on this picture, you might be wondering, "What pattern stitch?" And, unfortunately, the flash has obscured some details, but even in person they're still subtle. While I am enjoying both the yarn and the pattern, this yarn doesn' show off the cable details very well. But given how nice and simple this sweater is, I can imagine doing it in a different more simple yarn someday.

The picture above also gives you some idea how variable the dying in this yarn is. Even though I am alternating skeins, (and I worked with 4 different skeins in this piece because I finished up both balls I started on the back) you can tell where the changes occur. It's a little starker in this picture than it is in person.

Proof of Cables

Just to prove that there actually is a cable motif in the center, I took a close up shot. You might noticed that there are both left and right leaning decreases in this project. Because I had done the first part using SSK's where I slipped both stitches knit-wise, I decided that this would be a great opportunity to see the difference between SSK's where both stiches were slipped knit-wise and SSK where I slipped the first knit-wise and the second purl-wise as suggested by Laura and Melissa in the comments to Monday's post.

Top: knitwise, purlwise
Bottom: knitwise, knitwise

The SSKs in the top half of the picture were done with the slips going knitwise, purlwise. In the bottom half of the picture, both slips were done knitwise. Both produce and acceptable result, but I do think that the knitwise, purlwise slipping results in a more subtle decrease where the front stitch is less pronounced. I'll have to try this experiment in a project where the yarn doesn't obscure the results, but I think I've found "the way" for me to do SSKs. I'm looking forward to trying this out in a more sophisticated lace project where the blocking process will let me get a closer look at the details.

All that's left now on this project are the sleeves and the collar. I have to decide now whether I'm going to race to the finish and "cheat" on my agreement or whether I am going to go back and do one of the fronts on LoTech. It's going to be a tough decision as I am just dying to have a new sweater in my closet that I can wear to work, and this one now seems so much closer than it did before....