C is also for Cables and Colorwork..

Since it works with the knitting I've been doing lately, I figured a bonus ABC entry was in order.

I started Rogue this week and got the bias hem finished Tuesday night and then needed to get different needles to continue with the body. I worked on it more Wednesday night and got through the first 13 pattern rows and started on the kangaroo pocket. The interesting part at the moment is just the side cable, which you can start to see:



I don't think I like the charts for the cables, but now that they're started I can read where they're going well enough from the finished fabric that it's not so bad. Some of the crosses have a loose end stitch, but blocking should fix that once it's finished.

And tonight I swatched for my very first attempt at Fair Isle, in "training" for the Knitting Olympics (starts tomorrow at 2 p.m.!). I chose a different color scheme than the original pattern, and I rather like how it's going to look.



You can't really tell the light brown from the yellow in the picture. The yellow is in the two rows around the middle and in the top (which is really the center of the pattern - I decided not to repeat the bottom block as it's just shifted for the top). I wasn't sure how I'd like the orange in it, but like it in the pattern.

I'm going to have to figure out whether I want to carry the yarn up the inside or just cut and weave in more ends. I'm at least going to cut ends between the two pattern blocks - it's just too far to carry that much yarn up the side over the center stripe.



I think I'm going to have to cut strands anytime I carry the yarn more than a couple rows, though, or I'm going to have too many strands hanging off the finished work for this to be at all manageable.

My floats, while a bit tight (which I expected - I tried to do this as an inside out tube, but that was really fiddly on double points), aren't too messy, which is good to know.



It will be easier to knit this as an inside out tube on a 24 inch circular, though, so I imagine that the little bit of snugness can be accomodated for more easily. My gauge is also a bit too tight, but again, I suspect that it will be easier to keep things loose on a circ.

The socks I started Sunday are almost finished as well. I managed to make siblings, though, rather than twins - there's two extra stitches in the ankle on the second one. I decreased two extra stitches in the gussett so the foot will be the same circumference and the toes the same length, and I doubt anyone will ever notice unless I point it out, so I'm not really worried about it. Considering it's the first pair I've made without even referencing a pattern, I'll consider it a success. I'll finish the second sock in the car tomorrow on the way up north - even if it means I get a slightly later start on the Knitting Olympics!