Glad to be Alive

The weather today was so beautiful. The color on the trees is intense this year and the sky is a vivid shade of blue. A good day to be thankful for friends, family, food and for feeling fine. Also, I think my husband is thankful for this:

Pattern: Durrow
Yarn: Beaverslide - sale yarn
Needles: 5mm and 4mm for cuffs and collar
Modifications: oh yeah, I made some!

I started with the sleeves and got them both done to the same point. Then I knit the body which was a slog. I've heard good things about Beaverslide yarn, mostly that it softens when washed. It certainly wasn't so soft to knit. But I'm not a wuss, it was the boring ribbing that had me pushing to get it done.

Just before joining the sleeves to the body, I added 6 short rows to the back of the body. Jim is a slim guy so his sweaters tend to ride up at the back due to his shoulders. The short rows are to give him extra length in the back in the same way that many ladies need extra length in their front.

I was going for a modified-raglan/shoulder-strap treatment for the shoulders because I really wanted those cables to come together around the back. I fudged it, and it's not perfectly equal but I did get it together.

I like that it's not perfect actually. Even down to the fact that I twisted both rings and so I've got a little bloop at the grafting point instead of a nice twist. I've decided I don't care! It's unique this way! Life isn't perfect, neither am I, and neither is my knitting.

Then came the neck and having that extra cable at the back meant that I didn't need nearly as much neckband at the back as I did to fill in the front. No worries though, I used some short rows to fill things in and here it is:

It all flows together fairly well and you'd never guess that a knitter was just going crazy on this thing. It's an enjoyable experience to just let the knitting tell you what to do. It flows. Of course, having some technique under your belt is a big help to problem solving.

The sweater hasn’t been blocked in the photos and I’m expecting it to loosen up some. With a busy day of cooking and cleaning today I didn't have a chance to do it yet. Also, as noted above, the Beaverslide yarn I used was a sale yarn and it seems to be different shades of grey. Once I became aware of it, I noticed color changes even within one ball of yarn. I’ve decided that it’s so subtle I’m going to call it a feature. It goes well with my extra cable bloop at the back.

Now the gift knitting can begin in earnest.