Cadenza

We now interrupt my trip down memory lane for some knitting content. I know! Nobody's more surprised than I am, believe me. Since finishing my Zen tank, I've had a severe case of project paralysis. I can't seem to start anything. I look at the stash and I look at my Ravelry queue, and...nothing. It's not that I don't have anything to knit. It's that I have too many choices.

Because I'd said that I was going to use the yarn I'd bought myself for my birthday, that narrowed my options a bit. I only had 512 yards of it, and I'd resolved not to buy more, or to complicate things by buying a complementary yarn to bring me up to a full sweater amount.


"Hey, Suzanne? Why isn't the first picture a modeled shot? What's the deal with laying it out flat on your lazy Susan?"

Yeah, that's pretty nice, huh? I like the wood behind the knitting. It makes a nice backdrop, and I've been looking for that kind of thing. Anyway, let's dive right into the details.

The Pattern
Kinda-sorta the Anthropologie-Inspired Capelet, but in a different gauge, with seed stitch instead of ribbing, no border at the front to keep it from rolling, completely different increases at the shoulders, longer, with short-row shaping at the arms and around the back, and...O.K., it's a really just a top-down raglan cardigan and I ran out of yarn to make anything more of it.


The Yarn
Colinette Cadenza in 'Raphael'. I used just about all of four skeins of it, so let's say 500 yards. It was a lovely yarn to knit, and I had a great time watching the colors mix together. I knit with three skeins at once to prevent pooling, and it made perfect sense when I was doing it, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to explain it. I just tried to work it out with a handful of pennies and some lined paper here at my desk, but all I managed to do was irritate myself with the sound of scratching coins.

"Suzanne? That's a close-up of the lazy Susan shot. What does it look like on a person instead of your bar?"

What needles did I use? Glad you asked!

The Needles
Here's where I run into trouble, being at work and all. I know I used the Boye Needlemasters, but I don't remember the size. I know they were the lilac points, because I haven't put them away yet. Umm...eights? That sounds about right. I used 12" Addi Turbos for the arms, and they were eights as well, except when they weren't because I mixed a nine in there by mistake.

The Time
I started July 21st and finished some time toward the end of August.

"Suzanne? Is there something wrong with the back? Why aren't you wearing it?"


The Modifications
The back? Yes, I did do some extra work on it. I've got a pretty broad back, so anything that's going to hit above the kidneys is going to bow up unattractively unless I add some fabric back there to bring it down. I added short rows at the back at 3-6-9-12 stitches from the edges. I like lifted increases, and since this yarn was so much smaller than Rowan Polar and heavily variegated, I figured the lacy YO increase wouldn't stand out enough. Also, I...I didn't add a button...look, I give up. It's not at all like the AIC. The only thing they have in common is that they're both cropped and they're both made of wool. I just wanted to be able to say that I'd done one, because everyone else is doing it. Because I'm a bandwagoneer, O.K.? Now you know my secret.

Here's another one. I didn't swatch for this project. I just picked a needle size that I thought would get me close to 18/24, cast on 97 stitches and went for it. It's a miracle that it fits.

"But does it? Because now we're starting to get suspicious..."

Conclusions
I love this little sweater. I know a lot of knitters don't like seed stitch, but it's one of my favorites to do. I don't mind switching between knits and purls with every stitch, and I love feeling the texture as I'm working. The finished sweater is too short and too tight to pretend to be a cropped jacket, which was my original intent, but that's cool. It isn't my usual thing, and I don't know how much wear I'll get out of it...

"...especially since you're not wearing it now. Seriously, what's the deal?"

Alright fine. Here. Here's me wearing it. See, the thing is that I've had a less than successful summer, fitness-wise. I had the whole toenail-falling-off thing happening again, and my work's all demoralizing, and Starbucks has that damned two-dollar cold drink promotion going which means iced white mochas at half price, and so on. As a result, this sweater is disappointingly not so cute on me. Don't let the picture fool you. I look slender because I've got my arm raised above my head and I'm taking a really deep breath in while stretching upward. The foreshortened perspective is doing me all kinds of favors as well.


So I love the sweater, but I don't love wearing it at the moment because it's a visual reminder of my lack of willpower. This is part of the cause of my project-picking-paralysis (PPP). I keep thinking, "That'll look good once I trim a few inches off of my waist. But I haven't done it yet, so I shouldn't start on that, because it's just going to disappoint me." Accountant Boy and the Amazon have promised to shove me forward down the path to svelteness, and both seem to think that losing fifteen pounds by the holidays is a reasonable goal, so we'll see.

The real test will be A.B. driving me to the gym while I sulk in the passenger seat, stubborn tears of anger welling up in my eyes. "You said you wanted to go, honey." Blink, blink, blink. "Do you not want to go? Because you can stay in the car while I work out." Blink, blink, sniff. "I'm going..." I always end up following him in. I don't know why I give him such a hard time beforehand.

Anyway, it's knitting and it's done. Yay!