slipstitch

Whew! I finally made a rough approximation of a correct cable pattern out of the mush that was #14 in the fall issue of Vogue Knitting. My twists all go in the same direction, but the big and little twists in the picture go in opposite directions and I think the big ones are bigger in the photo than mine are (due to the *&%%%$! chart being so messed up!) The cable chart is shite and the corrections to it only go so far in giving you the information you need to replicate the picture... but who cares if my all twists go in the same direction and are not exactly the same size as the picture. They are consistent throughout & they look fine, just not quite like the photo. That's okay, though... who needs to be a cookie cutter, anyway?! After struggling with the foundation of the cable pattern for the last three days, I completed the entire back piece in a matter of hours, sitting around at my favorite coffee shop this afternoon. The sweater will probably be done by the end of the week at this rate. Too bad I can't take a picture right now, but tomorrow I am having a labor day weekend get-together with my parents and I think I'll use their digital camera to take some pictures while I'm over. They have the same one that I just broke, only a more recent model (the Kodak Easyshare) so I ought to be able to bring my laptop over and download the pics direectly into my 'puter.

I think I might actually wear this sweater... all the other versions I knit with this yarn (Misti Alpaca Chunky) were horrible looking on me. I love the feel of the yarn while working with it, but not so much how it wears... for one thing it sheds like a monster. Another it's hotter than hades (Alpaca is super super warm for it's weight, so chunky weight alpaca is really intense!) and so, since it's mostly an outdoor sweater, but it sheds all over you, you either end up inside covered in fuzz or inside with your sweater on so no one sees you are covered in fuzz, sweating miserably because you are so gosh-durn hot!

Not a good combination, as you might imagine. I am noticing much less fuzziness the third time of knitting with this same batch of yarn... I think the multiple froggings and the minimal amount of wear the sweater got in it's past-life did reduce the shedding a bit. So, I am crossing my fingers that I'll be able to wear this one and LIKE it.