TCC ALL DONE!!

My Travelling Cables Cardigan is all steamed and seamed. I was so happy to get her done that I had to put up a picture of her right away. There was no one around to take an action shot so a still photo had to do. She is knit out of red Nature Spun even though she looks pink at times in these photos. I found some big silver buttons to hide my poorly done buttonholes. They have a pretty celtic looking cable pattern on them so I thought them very appropriate. There is a photo of the button detail on my blog. I hope to get some better pictures of her up on my blog by this week-end so you can see the true color.

Travelling Cables Front

Travelling Cables Front
Originally uploaded by pghjan2.

Over Christmas I came down with a terrible cold which meant that I had an excuse to sit and knit. I managed to finish the front of my cardigan the day after Christmas. I am hiding the buttonholes from you because they leave something to be desired. I am hoping that a good blocking will straighten them out. When I feel better I am going to go shopping for some buttons. I am thinking some pretty silver ones. What do you think?

Just Joined

Travelling Cables
Originally uploaded by pghjan2.

Hi Everyone! I just joined this KAL and thought I'd post my progress. I started this sweater for the Red Sweater KAL and Jo was kind enough to let me know about this one. So this sweater is a KAL twofer. I am knitting her out of some Nature Spun I had in my stash. She is very bright but I like her. I'm just starting the front and I noticed I didn't do the moss stitch as it is in the pattern. Oh well, I'm not starting over. I knit more of a pebble stitch than a moss stitch. Thats what I get for knitting in a hurry.

A Slow KALer..

Howdie : )

It has been a while.. I've been a bad blogger/emailer in general lately.. I find that I have a lot of things to do that have nothing to do with the computer at all.. and I am very distracted by my new baby Alfie.

But I have been slowly knitting and toiling away on my TCC. When I last posted I had both of my fronts done, which completed the body.. Currently I have one totally completed sleeve and one that is up to the shoulder shaping. Here's a finished sleeve:



I did figure out how to knit the sleeve in the round.. it really wasn't hard.. although there was some ripping back I'd rather not talk about ; )

I am procrastinating very very badly with the second sleeve, because I cannot figure out for sure if I am going to want another inch of length. I know for a fact that even if every other part of the sweater is perfect in every way, I still will not wear it if I deem the sleeves too short. I like my sleeves to go over my hand about half way, (The way it is on the model on the pattern page) which means I knit sleeves pretty long.. I don't know if the construction of this sweater will make the sleeves the "right" length on me or not.. and I haven't decided if I can block another inch into them if it turns out I want to.

Someone suggested that I just try blocking the completed sleeve to see what happens.. but I am so gun-shy on blocking with a baby kitten in the house it isn't even funny. I keep hoping for a good long weekend at home where I can babysit him and keep him off my dang sweater as it dries.. but I have had no such weekend.

All of this aside.. I am dang determined to get this sweater FINISHED before it gets super hard cold around here.. so I can wear it THIS winter. I just hope my procrastination doesn't get the better of me.

Have any of you thought about seaming this thing at all? The thought of it honestly terrifies me. I don't know what stitch to use because seaming moss-stitch doesn't really make sense to me. And the construction of this sweater is pretty odd if you ask me.

After all this knitting and it all coming out fine.. I still find little things to worry about and stop me in my tracks.. I need to decide to get it done and get it over with.. but I do want to do it right and I want a beautiful sweater in the end, above all.

So, any tips or comments of encouragement are very very welcome. (Threats if the sweater isn't complete soon are also welcome.)

Moving along nicely

I can't believe it but this pattern is actually working out quite easily so far - there may well be rapids ahead, but at present we're in calm smooth water.



The cashmere/silk seems to be enjoying itself too, giving wonderful stitch definition and altogether behaving like the upper-class creature it is.

I love the way the cables come closer together in the middle, forming a little flare or bustle at centre back. The next stage is to start them travelling outwards. I assumed this would have to be via the usual method of painstakingly cabling sideways, but to my delight I discovered that it's all done by increases and decreases on either side of the moving cable. So much easier and simpler - why didn't I think of it instead of Karabella? (I don't think, somehow, that I'm cut out for knit design, though - you need to have a certain kind of mathematical brilliance, I think, and the capacity to see ahead to a finished product - neither of which I possess.)

Anyway, it's progressing just fine. I've ordered dozens more of my friends to come on over here immediately and join up as well, and if I don't see their contributions posted soon, there is going to be trouble!

Yo! I'm up and running and in there at LAST!

Yep, thanks to the adorable, the veritably angelic Angeluna, I now have the pattern and I'm ready to go. More than that, I've already started!



Now now, no need to scorn. I only found the pattern in my letterbox when I got home this wild and windy raindrenched night, and it's just after 9 pm now, so I didn't do too badly. I'm making it in some of my very special stash of cashmere and silk yarn in natural. This is that famous yarn I occasionally list on eBay when I can bear to let some of it go, and its most famous attribute is that when you first wash it (on the cone it has this dressing that looms demand for smooth working, so it needs washing), it immediately gives off a strong odour of - well, not to put too fine a point on it - the manure heap. Don't know whether it's the cashmere 50% or the silk 50% but pong it definitely does. Fine after that though, soft and aristocratic and entirely ideal for this beautiful pattern.

When I tried a swatch on the recommended 4.5mm needles, it came out a little larger than the indicated four inches which was fine by me. I'm following it for the smallest size, and I estimate it will actually be one of the larger measurements. Just done the two preliminary rows of rib and then it's on to the cables. Anything I ought to know about in advance here? Danger signs ahead, road works, diversions, disasters? Tell me now! I'm only getting into first gear!

Jo
http://celticmemoryyarns.blogspot.com

I WANT to make this! I really really DO!

So why won't anyone let me?

Let's start again. Alerted to this glorious design by a fashion-conscious friend, I immediately set out to get the pattern. It was so me, so gorgeous, I just knew I'd look great in it. I was prepared for the hard work, probably some frogging, a late night or two, a few swearwords. It would be worth it.

So why can't I get the pattern?

I should make that clearer. Why do American-based online stores think it quite justifiable to charge something in the range of the Gross National Debt to post a paper pattern to Ireland? I mean, it can fit in an envelope, right? It doesn't weigh that much, right? Emigrants have been penning heartrending notes to their families back in Ireland since the postal system was invented, right?

So why this exorbitant extortion?

Let's name some names, shall we? The first stockist I hit upon was Yarnmarket.com. I saw they had Lantern Moon circulars as well, so decided to order a 5.5mm as a treat, to accompany the Travelling Cables pattern on its Atlantic crossing. The total came to around US$30. That was OK - the majority of it was for the needles, since Lantern Moons aren't cheap. They're still cheaper than Colonial Rosewood which I would always use if I could, but not the lowest priced on the market by any means.

Here comes the nub of the argument. You ready for this? To post one circular needle, wood, weight approx. 1 or 2 ozs, plus one paper pattern, weight negligible - they wanted US$32. That's for the postage, not the price of the items. The total bill would have been US$62.

Now I wanted the pattern like crazy, but that kind of bill I wasn't paying. So I dumped Yarnmarket and went looking elsewhere. Ah, Knitpixie. Do they have it? Yes, they do. OK, no risks with circular needles this time - just go for the pattern. US$6.50, that's fine. Now - postage?

Twenty dollars.

All the grannies in America who mailed fat letters back home for the price of a postage stamp must be staring open-mouthed by now. I'm not surprised. So was I, looking at the computer screen as if it had gone mad. Twenty dollars to post a pattern?

I will admit that I emailed Knitpixie. I was good and mad so I informed them I was going to tell the world about this on my weblog and anywhere else I could find. To give them credit (maybe it was my BIG threat, you think? A weblogger's threat must be pretty powerful, surely?) they replied fairly promptly, telling me that they did refund postage on occasion when it was found that the mailing costs were less than anticipated. Hmmm. Not quite good enough. How come, when they knew it was simply one pattern, they still asked for $20 up front in the first place? Thanks, but no thanks.

In the meantime, I'm still patternless. And likely to remain so unless someone comes up with a solution. Call me mean, call me Scrooge if you like, but there is no way I'm paying three or four times the cost of the original pattern just to get it across to here when I can post a letter in the other direction for 75c (that might be about 80 cents American). And although a shop over here might admittedly add on a few more pence for envelopes and things, that is all they would add on.

At this stage, frankly, I don't know what to do. Someone said the pattern had originally appeared in an issue of Vogue. Did it? If I searched on eBay or indeed in the archives of Vogue Knitting, could I order a back number? I'd rather spend my money that way than enriching the pockets of those who habitually rip off their customers with outrageous postal charges.

I suppose I could occupy my time at the moment, frustrated though I am, with deciding in what yarn this lovely jacket should be made. Any suggestions, gang? All advice welcomed.

Jo at Celtic Memory Yarns
http://celticmemoryyarns.blogspot.com