Tuesday, December 2, 2008

The Idea with a Life of it's own

Do you ever get an idea (specifically a knitting idea) in your head and you can't stop thinking about it until you sit down and knit? I believe the proper term is "obsessing".
Well, I got into my head that I want to make DH a Fisherman's Sweater. Like the ones Elizabeth Zimmermann knit, in the round, with steeked armholes, out of good, warm wool the color of sheep in Ireland. So, I swatched, and I determined that with the yarn I had on hand of sufficient quantities, the gauge was going to be smaller than I wanted, and I was afraid that I might not like him anymore after knitting a sweater like that for his large, manly frame.

I have been wondering what it's like to knit with Cascade Eco-Wool, and I thought I might test-drive some before buying a whole sweater's worth. And...the Knitting Habitat is having a Holiday Sale. (It doesn't count as an actual yarn purchase if it's on sale, does it? Because I am on a yarn-diet...) So I decided to make a Swatch Cap or two to decide whether this sweater-fantasy is a project I can realistically tackle.

I have been working on this idea for at least 2 hours today...scribbling notes and schematics, choosing cable patterns and figuring out the math and stitch counts. Those orange cards up there have one row of each cable pattern written on them, so I can make sure I'm matching up the rows correctly and don't have to carry around two or three different books while I'm knitting this thing. I knit about 1" of hat earlier and realized that I had mis-calculated the number of stitches I need and made a 30" diameter tube of knitting rather than a 20" hat. I know I said DH is large and manly, but he certainly does not have a super-human 30-inch noggin. That one is frogged, and I spent DD's Ballet class re-figuring and re-drawing schematics, and re-casting-on a more appropriate number of stitches.

I have to go knit now, I'm sure I won't be able to sleep until I get through at least one repeat of each cable pattern, but that may take me all the way to the crown, and then I will have to figure out the decreases. Maybe I'll knit a lining like for the "Very Warm Hat"...I better make some coffee, also.

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