Prosess-strikking

I think it's time to acknowledge that I really like knitting cables. They feel right to me in a way that lace knitting never quite does. I guess maybe because I'm always cold these days it just fundamentally doesn't make sense to me to add holes to a knitted fabric deliberately!

I finished the Laurel hat by Jared Flood. It ended up too big (no surprise, I have a pin head) but wearable. KE thinks it looks like a little old lady hat, so it doesn't have his approval, but I plan on wearing it anyway.

 This was taken while it was still blocking on a a dinner plate. As I feared, the single ply yarn isn't the best for showing off fancy cable work.

I finally decided what to do with all the fingering weight Shetland wool I bought in Denmark last summer. There is a pattern for a very basic cabled turtleneck in one of my ancient Vogue Knitting magazines. I've always loved it, but never given serious thought to knitting it. It occurred to me though that the yarn might just work for that pattern. I had originally bought it to make the really fancy Alice Starmore (whoops, I almost wrote "Starwars," which tells you something about the main thrust of discussions in our household these days!) pullover called Fulmar. The problem with that is that I want to modify it really substantially, and I just haven't quite worked up the nerve for that. I think this project is going to work out really well as a substitute:

  It's most definitely a "process" knitter's type of project. It's extremely repetitive and basically really OCD. For the back alone I had to cast on 250 stitches (reducing to 230 stitches after the ribbing). There are 28 cable columns, and the cables themselves come every sixth row.

I have to admit I find it mesmerizing! There's no telling how long it's going to take me, since it's fairly oversized and has this cable pattern over the entire front, back and both arms. I should add too that the color is much richer than in these washed out winter pictures...