Casting on.

I played with swatches last night after dinner, after grabbing Volume 1 of my Barbara Walker stitch dictionaries. Started with a size 5 needle and worked two or three patterns, including my favorite broken rib, then switched to a size 4 needle for a few rows of double moss stitch. Since Beloved wants a cardigan and I won’t have the efficiency of knitting in the round (not in the mood to steek the opening, thank-you-very-much), I want a knit/purl pattern that is relatively mindless but not entirely so. After clearing my head in the shower this morning, I am thinking of alternating double moss stitch with the odd bit of broken rib, maybe randomly and maybe not.

I have both sleeves cast on, and seven rounds of K2P2 ribbing worked on one sleeve, while the other sleeve sits in timeout because I cast on with size 4 needles and worked the first two rounds, then geared down to size 3 and only have the one set. My plan with the sleeves is to get the ribbing worked, then slip both cuffs onto a long circ and work them simultaneously, which would ensure that they match perfectly.

Once the sleeves are up to the armscyes, I’ll slip them onto a holding needle and work the body to that point. I am planning a K2 “seam” along the inside of each sleeve and matching ones where side seams would go if this sweater were knitted in pieces and sewn together. I think I will like how the various increases and decreases take shape a lot better if they snuggle up to a thin column of plain knitting, rather than disrupting the pattern. When I do the raglan decreases, I think there will be another “seam” between the decreases. Although it just occurred to me that it might be fun to work a mock cable over two stitches, marching up the inside of the sleeve and the sides of the sweater and most definitely at the raglan decreases. An inch or two of pattern above the sleeve ribbing will tell me if I am inspired or just plain nuts.

Meanwhile, I need to tank Lorelai before heading into work. We are having our Milestone Anniversary party this afternoon, (three individuals who have worked 5 years, 10 years, or 15 years, and four who have worked 20 years; a total of 110 years of collective brilliance, and some of my favorite people) and this will be my last hurrah for the festivities committee.

This is another week in which I will need to cram five days’ worth of work into four. And one in which I would really much rather sit in my chair in the living room and knit away on Beloved’s sweater. I am loving the color, and the yarn is every bit as nice to work with as I remembered.