It may not look like anything wearable but this is the embryonic beginnings of a sweater. You're looking at the front left side. The part at the top is the front of the sleeve. It's not a traditional cardigan. Nay! It's a twisted cardigan! (Mwah ha ha ha!!) The front sections are knitted from the center-out so you have horizontal cables giving it a nice twisted appearance. (And you intentionally drop the purl stitch between the cables for the laddering.) The back is done bottom to top then joined later. And not meant to be worn alone... Um, definitely throw something on underneath. No, seriously. It will be cool when it's finished. I've done both sides of the front and started the back last night. The pattern calls for bulky weight yarn. Did I go buy bulky weight yarn? No. Why would I do that? That would be following instructions. Next you'll be wanting me to check my gauge and read the pattern exactly too.
Fiasco part I: I bought Malabrigo worsted in Violettas-- a nice inky periwinkle. I personally don't know how Malabrigo worsted is classified as a worsted at all. I think it's heavy worsted at best-- but maybe bulky. So that was my reasoning that got me on the road to knitting a size small, which I would normally wear. Well, apparently my yarn-logic shouldn't have practical use. It was waaay effing small. (That would be because I should have used BULKY yarn and then checked my gauge. DOH!) So, halfway through the left side, I have an intervention with myself and frog the dang thing, starting again with a medium. Medium looks good.
Fiasco part II: After finishing the left, I went to start the right which is identical to the left but reversed. That was when my brain started to skip. I knitted the first five rows just fine then row six nearly caused me to blackout with rage... six times. I had to redo the entire first six rows six times. Add a third-six and you'll start to understand the feeling. The problem was, row 5 was an increase row and 6 was cables. The stitches were just tight enough from the increases (and my gauge tends to be tight-er anyway) that I would start the first cable and (brain skip) the yarn would be just to the tips of the needles to make everything meet and my hands would jump and I would drop about seven stitches in such a way that there was no way I could just pick them up. It was a start over situation every time. Then I got past it by about a dozen rows only to realize I had skimmed over a part of the pattern that was pretty critical (tends to happen when you've just knitted the same rows over and over.) So I had to frog it AGAIN. I'll stop there. I had to go get a glass of wine. The next morning I completed the right side on the first try without a hitch. I hope to God I can finish this without any additional drama...
Badassery is afoot.
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