Sigil Starts
Well, after my embarassing drunken fling with the fuzzy scarf (which I still adore, but we've agreed to see each other only when I'm in the car), I've come back to Sigil.
Finally, I have a picture that shows off the cable work a little bit!
To get this far, I knitted the bottom band, and then, because of the shrinky-dink effect I get by soaking this yarn after knitting, I decided the best thing to do would be to block the band before proceeding. After it had time to block and dry, I then picked up 60 stitches along the long edge. I did this by picking up two stiches, skipping one, picking up one stitch, and skipping one until I had 60 stitches on the needles. Now I am zipping my way up the next 9" before the sleeve shaping. I really like how the column of stockinette on the edge of the length-ways piece creates a strong visual dividing line between the cabled area and the plain stockinette. Hopefully it means that I've found a good design element that will work well throughout the garment.
One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is where I got the measurements for the sweater. I used this suggestion from Bonne Marie's technical section, although instead of measuring a sweater, I measured the black jacket that I photographed. It's 40" around and about 21" from bottom to shoulder. The sleeves are about 22" long. I worked tbe rest out from there. I've opted for rather shallow armhole shaping -- only 2" of deacreases on either side.
After I complete the back, I'll completely soak and wet-block the whole piece just to make sure that my swatch wasn't faking me out. Then I'll probably move onto one of the sleeves so that I can make sure that I've got the cap shaping worked out right. It seems like there's more than one way to skin a cap, so to speak and I'm curious to see how that goes.
This is going to be a great pattern, I'm watching in awe!
Good idea to block the cable bit before picking up. Since I'll probably be making my Delphine Wilson knock-off in a similar fashion (think cabley bit around the mid-arm area) I'll do the same.
Wow, you weren't kidding. Those cables do POP! I admit, I was a little skeptical of the last cable photos, but I was taking your word for it that the cables would stand out. Once again, you came through for me.
And blocking before picking up stitches? Wow, that's smart. And something I would probably never ever do. I'm way too lazy for that. Probably why my knitting never turns out so nice! :)
Drunken fling with the fuzzy scarf. LOL. I love it.
*swoon* It's gonna be gorgeous. Your adventurous spirit never ceases to impress me. :) (and I never fail to say "I need to get a blocking board" every time you post in-progress pictures!)
Fantastic, Theresa! I love how the cables turned out, and it's so unique to put them in that direction...Great job!
It looks great. I love that you have something running vertical and something running horizontal. Very eye catching
What a great start. The cable looks fabulous.
I'm confused. Why block the band before picking up the stitches? When you go to block the finished back, won't the picked up (and previously unblocked) stitches shrink in the same fashion, leaving them smaller (or rather narrower) than the band, thus puckering said, admittedly gorgeous, band? That's what's happening in my head when I picture the procedure. Unconfuse me, pretty please?