Textured Cardigan

Recipient: Baby Harding
Designer: Moi
Pattern: As yet unnamed
Completed: October 5, 2006
Colours: Cream
Yarn: Zellers 100% acrylic, sportweight
Ungiven status: Baby due October 12, 2006; to give during an office visit sometime in November
Notes: Pattern to be for book
Pictures: None

2006-Oct-10

I finally got down to work and started in on the math for the fronts.

However, it was too late. My lack of desire to knit over the past two months conspired to make this the first co-worker baby gift ever that didn't get done in time. I was super-pissed about that, I don't mind admitting. However, enough was done by party time (the back, both fronts, one sleeve, the neckband and a fair bit of sewing-up) that I was able to make it look a lot like a cardigan and wrap it up for giving.

Despite the one-sleeved-ness and lack of side seams, my co-worker was really, really delighted. She actually hadn't expected any gift at all - she had figured that since I'd already made something for her first kid, I would bother for kid #2. Silly lady. :) All new babies deserve good stuff!

I finally finished it on Thursday and am really, really pleased with how it turned out. I'm definitely proud to include this pattern in my still-hypothetical-but-getting-more-realistic-as-more-patterns-get-designed-and-tested book. I offered to drive it over to my co-worker's house this weekend since her place is about a half hour away from my mother-in-law's (whom we were visiting this weekend), but she told me not to worry. Apparently she's planning to bring the baby into the office to visit sometime in November, so I'll just bring the cardigan in to work with me sometime soon and wait for her to show up.

2006-Aug-8

This has been the main focus of my knitting in the past week or so. I ditched the pattern I'd previously been trying to make work and came up with another one. Many, MANY swatches were made. (And not coincidentally, my frustration with the whole thing increased.) However, this weekend I finally hit pay dirt with one of my pattern/needle size/yarn gauge combinations. DH looked at the swatch and gave it the big thumbs-up, agreeing with me that the motif I was going for was absolutely visible.

After that I started in on the math. So far I've written out the instructions for the back and the sleeves.

Unfortunately it turns out that I am too stupid to follow my own freakin' directions and have had to redo the bottom ribbing on the back at least three times. Finally this afternoon I successfully finished it. Flushed with triumph at having accomplished that pathetic milestone, I then proceeded to screw up the main motif, too. Le sigh. I think, however, that I now have it started properly, and it seems to be going pretty well. Stay tuned for the continuing comedy of errors that is me trying to design a baby cardigan.

2006-May-11

Being re-inspired with new design ideas for the lace baby shawl I'm planning made me realise that, if I had to, I could take the motif I wanted to use for this cardigan and translate it into lace for the shawl instead, leaving me free to come up with another texture pattern for this cardigan that would work better than what I'm trying to make work right now.

So what I'm going to do is keep on with the latest test of the texture motif, and if it doesn't work out, then I will be perfectly okay with letting it go and coming up with something else. Yay me.

2006-Apr-25

The test swatch for the pattern came out both good and bad. When the light hits it just right, the motif in the texture pattern was really obvious. Otherwise...it wasn't too terribly obvious, at least, not to me. DH insists you could absolutely tell what the pattern is. I'm not so sure.

So in an attempt to settle the matter, I'm knitting the test up again, this time using the yarn that I want to use for the actual cardigan, with 2.75mm needles instead of 3.25mms. I'm not that far into it at the moment, so it's hard to tell, but at least it's not so bad that I've given up all hope.

2006-Apr-5

Work has stalled a bit on the test pattern, although I have crawled forward a bit since my last blog entry.

2006-Mar-31

This week, one of my co-workers said she wanted to show me something, and then whipped out her ultrasound pictures. :) This will be her second baby (first baby received this), she's twelve weeks along and due in mid-October (a rockin' month for birthdays, say I).

I think I squealed. (I'm just like that.)

So...since this is definitely a person worth knitting for, I will be spending one of my allotted 2006 baby projects on her. I will be taking the opportunity to design another pattern for my book.

In fact, the designing and testing have already begun. Sadly, my first two efforts did not go so great, so I had to suck it up and test a larger version of the pattern. This is so there is more definition to the pattern, making the motif (hopefully) actually discernable to the human eye. This is not what I wanted to do, because a 21x21 design on a baby garment does not give you a whole lot of motif repeats. Which means I will likely be forcing knitters of this pattern to go blind by calling for fingering weight yarn and teeny-tiny needles. Sigh. We'll see how attempt #3 turns out.

2006-Jan-11

In my continuing effort to free my schedule up from baby projects for people who aren't totally near and dear to me, I am de-assigning this one. My friends who are expecting in March, though lovely people, do not run across our path very often. I still want to design and make this cardigan, but it will not be for March, and it will be for someone else - destination unknown.

2005-Sep-12

Fantasy: The Schedule does not allow for new projects for impending babies until mid-late March 2006. The mother will just have to delay the birth.

Reality: Screw The Schedule. I will rearrange stuff in 2006 so that I can have this project done in time for a pre-baby shower.

Whence came this new project, you may ask? Well, this morning a friend of mine called me and told me that some friends of ours are expecting their first baby in March. This is wonderful news and I'm tremendously happy for them. I will be designing a cardigan for the wee one and the design will be for my still-hypothetical-but-it-has-several-designs-written-for-it-so-far book.