As mentioned in the previous post, the boyfriend actually made a decision on what sort of knitted Christmas he'd like. He said things like "cardigan" and "black" and "cabled". Feeling a little bad about throwing out all his cardigans a few years ago (they were all nasty-old and acrylic and very Mr. Roger-ish), I found and bought Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan (which I'd been meaning to do ever since Yvonne brought it to Liberty's night to show-and-gloat) and pointed out the Pentagon Aran Cardigan. In agreement on the pattern, off we went a couple of weekends ago to Main Street on a sunny Sunday afternoon to acquire the necessary wool since, unfortunately, my stash is severely lacking in black wool. Our first stop was Birkeland Bros. which, unbeknownst to us, was closed for the long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving). Which left us wandering up the street in search of the much spoken-of new yarn shop, Three Bags Full (also linked in the sidebar as "My Local"). So new, in fact, that they didn't even have a sign up yet. It was pure luck (and vigilance) that I even spotted their window display from across the street. We had three choices of yarns: Cascade, which I found scratchier than my liking; Debbie Bliss, which I found pricier than my liking; and the Mission Falls 1824 Wool, which, although pricy still, was less expensive than the imported Bliss (it's a Canadian-made yarn) and less scratchy than the Cascade. Alas, the black was back-ordered... but Brendan found the charcoal well enough to his liking and our mission for the day was accomplished. As so it should be smooth sailing to Christmas morning, right? ha!
The Christmas Cardigan Saga: Part I - From Humble Beginnings
So, here we are at row 22.
What the picture doesn't show is the three times I had to frog this section, twice right back to the cast on. I don't think Gaughan realized that some of her readers don't think too hard before starting chart-work. The first time I started, I didn't even realize I was supposed to start on the Chart and, instead, started a 1x1 ribbing. When I figured that out, I decided a ribbed edge might be nice. Started the Chart after an inch of ribbing on the RS. Six rows later, came to the realization that the cabling is on the even rows and, therefore, I was cabling on the WS. Frog. Decided to read the Chart backwards the second time around (don't even ask, there was some sort of logic to it, I think). Frog. Got it going the correct way but lost a stitch during one of the cables the third time. Frogged back to the dropped stitch. So, three days after starting, I've got a hard-won 22 rows done. Yay, me!
Any hints on photographing cables in dark wool, Polly? They'd be much appreciated!
