The Cheerful Knitter Bares Nothing But Her Soul

Bare that what????????
Keen to employ all that I had learned and more zealous than ever to commit new "learning oportunities," I found a pattern I liked in The Yarn Girls' Guide to Simple Knits. It looked like it would offer me new challenges (v-neck, set-in sleeves) combined with some familiar, confidence-building elements (stockinette stitch, ribbing). The only sticky wicket was the name of the pattern, "Bare That Belly." The sweater was a cropped style, designed by the Yarn Girls to be short enough to show off their friend's new belly button piercing.

The Cheerful Knitter finds it necessary to briefly refer to herself in the third person.
The Cheerful Knitter did not happen to have a belly button piercing, nor a desire to bare her belly for any other reason. The Cheerful Knitter has, as a matter of fact, given birth to two children and retains a charming, old-fashioned modesty with regard to her personal appearance that in her opinion befits a churchgoing lady of her position, and for which she makes no apology. The Cheerful Knitter decided to ignore the pattern's name and knit the sweater several inches longer.

Beginner's Luck with Gauge
My "Baroque" yarn was easy on the eyes, subtly twisting together strands of cornflower blue, raspberry, and a color that made me remember brittle purple lollipops wrapped in crackling cellophane. It happened to be just the right thickness to achieve the necessary gauge with the recommended needle sizes, 9 for the ribbing and 10 1/2 for the body. "What's all this fuss about gauge I keep reading about?" I wondered. It augured well for the sweater's success, and I earnestly set to work.

Although I had seen how the lack of selvedge stitches caused an interruption of the ribbing pattern after seaming my first sweater, I followed the pattern and worked K3, P3 over 60 stitches. Then I switched to the larger needles and began the plain knitting of the back, looking forward to shaping armholes for the first time.
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As Promised
As soon as I read about i-cord, I couldn't wait to make some. The only problem was that at the time I had no such thing as a double-pointed or circular needle on hand. After studying the illustrations, however, I saw no reason why this intriguing stuff could not be created just as easily on single-pointed straight needles. In fact, I think my method is even easier.
Here is how I do it:

1. Cast on 3 or 4 stitches as usual.
2. Knit the first row.
3. Pull the whole row off the needle, turn it around, and replace it on the needle in reverse order.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until impelled to stop by hunger, children, or the need for a bathroom break (or, most urgent of all, hungry children who also need your help in the bathroom).

There is no need to fear either dropping your stitches or becoming obsessed. I have made miles of i-cord and never dropped a stitch, and i-cord addiction tends to be self-limiting once you have fashioned all the new purse straps, tote bag handles, curtain tie-backs, and Christmas tree garland you and your neighbors will ever need.

W.I.P.
It's a sweater!!!!!!!! Jubilation! I finished the last few inches of sleeve seam and wove in a few final ends this morning, put it on, and I'm never taking it off!

My new sweater is a set-in sleeve style with a rolled collar, and it's exactly the right length. The design is a sampler, combining stitch patterns of hearts, trees, diamonds, a few cables just for vanity's sake, and one prominent snowflake. All of the patterns show up so well in the beige color.

This sweater represents many "firsts" for me: the first time I've worked with 100% wool; the first time I've eschewed any kind of ribbed edgings; the first time I've knitted in the round (just the neckband--I'll never give up my straight needles). It was also the first time I've used graph paper to plan the various patterns' placement. I even designed my own (dead simple) diamond pattern when I couldn't find one to fit into my stitch count.

Are there aspects of designing and knitting this sweater I would approach differently next time around? Of course. This sweater has its own lessons to teach me, like all of its predecessors. But this is not the time for nitpicking or analysis. This is the time to savour the result of my hard work and be satisfied.

This is also the time to get right to work on my next sweater! Lovely though it may be, beige is beige. Rose heather and raspberry will be a welcome change.

Purls of Wisdom
From Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns: "After you have mastered a number of new patterns, you will never want to return to the drab tedium of "plain knitting." You will develop ideas for combining two, three, four or more different patterns in your own way, to produce effects that no one has ever produced before; and herein lies the thrill of making a garment that is uniquely your own."

Tomorrow:

• The second ugly sweater proceeds apace.
• What will the cheerful knitter knit next?