the blue blog archives: greenlight for greensleeves

You've convinced me. And I won't keep you in suspense anymore about which pattern I'm using - it's Able by Kim Hargreaves from the latest Rowan magazine (#33). I wanted to have a simple sweater with a center cable and had just been searching around for the right design. I was looking for something a little different from the basic cable over reverse stockinette background. And then I thought, moss stitch. Everytime I see the boys' aran sweaters, I start itching to do moss stitch again. I know most of you would rather stick knitting needles in your eyes than do a whole sweater in moss stitch, but I like it. As long as the yarn and the needles are halfway cooperative, I enjoy the rhythm of switching from knit to purl. So this pattern was absolutely perfect. I'll be using the green tweed for the moss stitch and then will try to do the center cable in the purple tweed yarn that Dava gave me to go with the green. Cool, huh?

posted by alison at 1:56 pm | in greensleeves

Comments

too funny, Alison! I thought about doing that sweater! And it was all that moss stitch that turned me off...I'll live vicariously by watching you work on it. Hmmm...vicarious knitting...

Posted by: dava at February 24, 2003 3:40 PM

I am so relieved.....

So if the cable is a different color, do you do intarsia? Are you worried about having enough yarn?

Posted by: Melissa at February 24, 2003 6:47 PM

Able is a cool-looking sweater. I'm looking forward to seeing the green/purple combo....

Posted by: claudia at February 24, 2003 8:11 PM

that sweater makes me want to be thin :)

i have been seed stitching a collar and have enjoyed the rythym of it...tho knowing its just a collar...

wish my kids would still wear giraffe pockets

Posted by: mare at February 25, 2003 8:49 AM

Hey Alison,
re: Native endless ends. In the future, why don't you try weaving them in as you knit - if you use the two handed fair isle method, you can hold the end in your left and the working yarn in your right and, instead of actually knitting with the end, you just do the 'wrapping/twisting/whatever exactly happens' with the yarn carried on the wrong side. Don't bother trying it in purl though - it's a pita and looks bad on the right side. Instead you can do the loose end of the new colour/ball as you knit it's first row then the end after you cut it off from the ball on the first row of the next colour/ball. Does that make sense? It does work and after you get the hang of it, it saves so much time!

Posted by: kate at February 25, 2003 12:44 PM

Hi all! Yes, I'm planning on doing intarsia in addition to the moss stitch. Funny, since Able is one of the few non-intarsia sweaters in the new Rowan mag and I'm adding intarsia to it. But Melissa is right, I am worried about running out of yarn. I got the green tweed in a swap and am not sure of how much is there. I had hoped to pair it with another color to have more yarn to work with. I'm still not sure whether I'll have enough for this sweater, but I'm just going to go for it.

Thanks for the tip on native and weaving in ends, Kate. I remember vaguely that I did try weaving in the ends on the back and it came out too bumpy looking on the front. I had wanted to stop and darn in ends at points along the way, but I was worried that the sweater was not the right size and didn't want to have woven everything in and then have to rip. And now I'm paying the price!

Posted by: alison at February 25, 2003 1:19 PM

I just had to chime in and say that I love purple and green together. Ever since I had some kind of dark fuchia and teal deal in elementary school that everyone teased, I have loved that color combo anyway. I look forward to seeing your interpretation!

Posted by: nod at February 25, 2003 10:23 PM