My 2011 Sweater Project

I have decided to knit an adult sweater each year. A couple of years ago I knit the Must Have Cardigan.Last year I knit myself the Icelandic Star.
Last month, I finished the Dale of Norway St. Moritz sweater.
Last night I cast on the October Frost sweater from Lisa Lloyd's "A Fine Fleece".
I don't like knitting swatches but understand the necessity of knitting to gauge when knitting a fitted item such as a sweater. So when I'm trying to determine the proper gauge, I just start knitting one of the fronts. I knew my gauge with 5mm needles with the Cascade 220 was 16st = 4". However, the cabling pulls the fabric in so I decided to go up one pattern size to have enough width without having to block the bejeepers out of the sweater to get adequate width. Once I determined the gauge, I already had the right front's ribbing and half of a pattern repeat done. So I just carried on.

The ribbing was supposed to be 4" long. I ended it after 2 1/2" as I was eager to start the pattern. The cables aren't that inspiring but the chart is great! The entire 32 stitch cable pattern is all graphed eliminating the need to jump from chart to chart to complete one row.

In fact, if all things work out well, in the future I would use these sweater dimensions as a template and just insert my own preferred cable patterns.

This will be my first time knitting a saddle shoulder. Some people on Ravelry who like to avoid seams, knit the sleeves first and then picked up the shoulder stitches and knit the fronts and back down from there. This is also something I would consider in the future. However, I got some excellent finishing instruction a couple of years ago and now am not put off by having to sew up seams. Strangely, this pattern has the knitter do the k1 selvage stitch for the centre front but not for the side seam. I'm not sure why but I've done it on both sides anyway to make it easier for me to sew the pieces together.

Others who have knit this pattern have observed that there is quite a bit of bulk under the arms with this design. I'll see how I like it once I'm done.

Last night I got a couple of repeats of the 24 row pattern done. Today, while waiting to get new tires on my car, I got another repeat done. This afternoon at knitting group, I finished the 15" of the right front before starting the underarm decreases. I'm well on my way.

If you really think about it, an adult cardigan has approximately the same number of stitches as a pair of socks. So if I work on it consistently, I could get this baby done in a week or so.