In Which I Make No Mention of Valentine’s Day

So, I’m unexpectedly home from college for the weekend because I’m pretty sure I have lyme disease, and I’m getting tested for it.  Don’t ask how I got lyme disease because I’ve spent approximately zero hours total in the woods over the course of my life, so clearly I’m just lucky.

During this time home, I could be interpreting the meanings and symbolism of poems by metaphysical poets in my Norton anthology (word to the wise: think carefully before choosing an English major.  I happen to enjoy symbolism.  Many don’t.  You know who you are), or I could tell you about a traditional Irish aran cardigan I finished a few weeks ago!

Pattern:  I can’t find the link that I downloaded it from, but when I figure it out I’ll let you know.  It’s a tough pattern.  I think it’s so old that the style it’s written in is different from today’s standards, because there are several parts that are not very specific.  Also, there are no schematics, and the sizes are outdated, which means I got halfway through the back when I realized it was going to be far too small for an eight year old.  The result was beautiful, but I would only recommend it for experienced knitters (not that that’s me, but if I had known these details, I might not have made the sweater).

Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman Wool.  Not my favorite, but appropriate for the sweater.

Back, a little distorted by the hanger.

I made this for my mom’s friend, who has an eight year old daughter, and she asked for a traditional Irish sweater.  I love cabling, so I jumped on the opportunity.  It was a lot of fun, but also an intense amount of work.  I would say I’m never making anything like that again, but I love cables so much that that’s not a promise I can ever make. 🙂

In Which I Get Nostalgic About Cables

I love cabling.  I always have.  The very first “real” pattern I ever knit (aside from the pre-requisite garter stitch rectangles that every knitter is supposed to make) was an aran scarf (found here).  I had so much fun knitting it.  When I showed it to people once it was done, they would always say, “that looks too hard, I could never do it,” which I never really understood because I didn’t find it to be hard at all.  My little cable needle and I were pretty much BFFs at that point.

This summer I caught a lace-knitting bug because lace scarves are pretty much the only appropriate projects for when it’s hot outside.  But now that it’s finally starting to feel like fall, all I can think about is cables.  Not just with knitting them either, because I have a hard time leaving behind cabled sweaters when I see them in stores.  I have a cable problem.  This is, of course, aided by the fact that a friend of my mother asked me to knit her eight-year-old daughter a traditional Irish cardigan.  I said yes (as if I need another project!) without actually knowing what that was.  Come to find out, it’s just an aran sweater.  Score!

I had a rough start because the pattern I’m using is not especially clear and it doesn’t include any schematics.  I started making the size 8-10, as she requested, but it was clearly going to be far too, far too small.  I frogged it (only mildly painful, because I had been telling myself the whole time that it might have to happen), and started working the next size up.  Now I’m less stressed about it, and it’s a lot more fun. 

When I first started knitting, I did it because I loved the process of it.  I loved the feel of it.  It was never because I needed to finish X amount of projects that I promised people before a certain date, as it seems to be now.  This probably also had something to do with the fact that I hadn’t discovered Ravelry yet, which I would never speak ill of, but if we’re being honest, Ravelry never helped anyone stick to one project at a time!  This sweater that I’m working on, even though I’m making it in the midst of about 75 other projects that need to be finished, has a cable pattern that is hugely reminiscent of my first scarf.  It reminds me of how much fun it used to be just to knit, without any pressure to finish, even though it is critical that I finish it before she grows out of it.