Pride Goeth Before a Fall

So, I had a couple of bus trips today plus a chunk of time between appointments when I knit on my cabled sleeve for my EPS sweater. I got into a groove and whipped along at a nice clip, finishing almost two repeats of the pattern in half an hour while I sat in a coffee place, sipped a cup of tea and people-watched.

Apparently somewhere in that groove I spaced out on the part where I stop and look at what I've knit once or twice a repeat to make sure everything lined up and crossed correctly.

Of course, at a point in there they didn't. And I hadn't noticed for quite a few rows.

I now have the cable section on a separate needle ready to drop it down and reknit it. Tomorrow morning when I'm fresh with a clear and resigned mind, I'll do the drop.

If you'd like to see  a beautiful cabled sleeve for a saddle-shouldered EPS sweater, check out Franklin's (scroll past the current exploits of Delores.) He devised a neat die-out for the transition of his elbow-length cable section to stockinette. I'll bet he finishes his first, too.

I got my mind off the current snafu tonight first by ripping the other sleeve with its multiple issues. The rip involved almost an entire ball of yarn. I planned to wind the unknit yarn into a skein for a quick rinse and hang-dry to unkink it.

How do others reskein yarn into something long enough to fit back onto a swift? This was my solution.

This exercise also provided an opportunity for me to realize that the color of this yarn doesn't actually lie that far out of my normal range, given that I apparently already own pants in a co-ordinating color.

After that I worked on what turned out as two swatches for a simple scarf to provide alternative knitting at times I can't or won't handle cables. I also wanted a second project on the needles for some traveling I'll do next week.

My original plan involved knitting this in stockinette in the round with columns of purl stitches to make an edge turn. Then I stopped to consider that this yarn, Casbah by Handmaiden, measures 325 meters in a one of a kind skein of small yarn - two socks worth at 8 to 9 inches around. I wanted a scarf 6 to 7 inches across or twelve to fourteen inches around - and therefore well shorter than two socks end-to-end.  (Note - the yarn is more blue-gray and less lavender-blue than the photo.)

So, I'm knitting flat with a longer seed stitch edge than that pictured.

Comments

[margene]

At least the problem wasn't at the beginning of th sleeve and should be quickly fixed. As a spinner I have a niddy noddy for rewinding skeins. However, your method is always around! ;-)

[Erika]

"How do others reskein yarn into something long enough to fit back onto a swift?"

Actually, I use... a swift! I have one of those cheap metal/plastic swifts, which features a little knob on the top. You can use the knob to turn the swift, so I use that to wind the yarn from the cake onto the swift.

My fall-back solution is to use a niddy-noddy which I've made from PVC pipe. You can have the guys at Home Depot cut it into the right lengths for you, then pop it together by hand. Total cost: about $3.

[Karen B.]

So sorry about the cable crossing (or not). At least you weren't finished with the sleeve before you noticed. Small favors?

[RobinH]

Wow, that sweater will go nicely with the pants when it's done!

I cannot begin to count the number of times I've dropped back cables in my own current cabled sweater...it seems to go with the territory.