The dark side of the knit

I took time off my Schnabu and turned to my Toasty, only to find that the curse has followed me (and my wallowing in knitting self pity has deepened!).

I was chunking along, about 10 rows away from finishing the raglan decreases on the neck of my cardigan when horror struck – I realised I had miscounted on the pocket cables!! 4 on one side and 5 on the other! I couldn’t believe it.

How could I not have noticed??? One side of the bands at front was a cable thinner. Sigh.

I tried to convince myself I could live with it, but who am I kidding. After administering some swift mental kicks for not really looking at what I was doing, I frogged. This is my largest expanse of frogged item yet, nearly 600 yds, all the way back to the cursed pockets.

 

It is maddening. You could knit a small sweater from the amount of yarn I have just unravelled.

The only upside is the ENORMOUS ball of yarn I have wound while frogging. It is pretty amazing, if I do say so myself. It is so large I can barely hold it in one hand!

(you have to look on the bright side!)

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Little…purl

I have just run across the cable stitch I am using in my Toasty. I initially plucked it out of a vintage knitting pattern I found at a charity shop on the Isle of Wight this summer, but didn’t know what it was called.

Get this – it is called ‘Little Pearl’! What a coincidence!

I am referring to the singular cable, for all I know, multiples might have another name,yet!

It is a super simple cable:
Row 1 lt, rt (left twist, right twist)
Row 2: Purl
Row 3: rt, lt (right twist, left twist)
Row 4: Purl

Here is something kind of interesting…if you do it on a purl ground (or with a purl before the cable, as I am above) it is also sometimes called the ‘Raised Circle’ cable. Wonder if this was just someone in the past naming it as a new stitch, without realising it had already been named?

Here is the difference:

Little Pearl/Raised Circle below

Click on Johnny Vasquez’s image above to view a video from New Stitch a Day demonstrating the stitch (breathe deeply through all the ads!).

Here it is butt up against each other, with no spacing in between, which causes a honeycombe effect and called ‘Ray of Honey’:

There are some great stitches and video demos on this site where these last 3 images are from. Definitely check it out! There are some great interviews with designers, as well.

I am definitely turning into a stitch nerd. It is so fascinating being able to deconstruct stitches and figure out how they are made…and contemplate how you could do something different with them.

Nerd-o-rama.

Toasty

Still carefully trucking along with my Toasty, which I posted on the other day but had not yet named.

I am working on this one slowly as I am going free fall and completely making shit up as I go along! It is a little scary not following a pattern, but I think I can handle it now. Famous last words!!! 😉

This is the cable I have chosen. I realised that by placing them side by side with only 1 purl row between, it creates a honeycomb like pattern, which I really like.

The stitch is very simple and quick as you don’t need a cable needle to twist the stitches…which is one of the main reasons I chose it, to be honest! So lazy.

Here is where I have gotten thus far on the body. The arms are ready and waiting.

I was going to add some different cables for more of a busy aran look, but decided I liked the classic simplicity of the stockinette and whatever this cable stitch is called. It really keeps the focus on the thick, lustrous silk merino.

I am nearly out of yarn, so have to figure out how much more I will need and get on ordering pronto!