Nomoro tse robong

The Man Sweater has begun.  I may boast that I don't engage in much social media, but that obscures the fact that I live in Yarn Fantasyland during a significant portion of my online time.

The Man Sweater is a good example.  I love the Churchmouse website.  They have beautiful, basic, stylish patterns.  The yarns they carry cut across multiple genres.  Once I saw the Saddle Shoulder Man's Pullover pattern, I knew it would be a great match for my man's shoulders.

He participates minimally in choices.  He is not a shopper.  I searched the interwebs (USA, United Kingdom) for excellent yarn.  To keep the flavor of the garment, I wanted something tweedy.  That meant that it would have to be both tweedy, and a similar gauge.  I set 2 or 3 choices in front of him, and he pointed at the Fibre Company Cumbria.  (Of course, I stuck that in front of him because I had been curious to try the yarn, and it seemed like a reasonable gauge match.  And, of course, yes on the tweedy.)

Webs wanted me to order a full bag, since they didn't normally carry that color.  I found it at Wool and Co.  When it arrived, I swatched.  This time, I actually wrote down the PREWASH measurements.  5 st/inch prewash, 4.75st/inch postwash.

The pattern called for a cable cast-on.  It is very twiddly and fiddly.  Since I was tempted to bag that, and use a long tail cast on, I looked up the advantages and disadvantages of each. 

The long tail cast on had a smooth, single yarn edge, with an advantage of stretchiness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cable cast on, alas, made more sense.  (credit: http://www.jessicabiscoe.co.uk/archives/casting-on-comparison-methods)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can see the advantage of that corded edge.  It gives a finished look to the edge of the sweater bottom.  The lack of stretchiness probably won't bother Mr. SnakeHips.  I briefly (time counted in microseconds) contemplated a tubular cast on.  That does not treat my hands well, and was quickly discarded as an option.

And now that all this is here in black and white, I see that I have to rip back to the fiddly part, hope to get it back on the needles without a complete redo, and add more stitches.  (Let us just say delicately that 19/5 is 4.75 and not 4.5.  It was most likely a transcription error, but fatal, nonetheless.)

And for those of you keeping track (or not):

Day 1 - Spanish
Day 2 - French
Day 3 - Danish
Day 4 - Hebrew
Day 5 - Turkish
Day 6 - Latvian
Day 7 - Azerbaijani
Day 8 - Latin
Day 9 - Sesotho

Comments

[Carole]

Damn, I'm sorry you have to rip back, I hope you haven't gotten too far. What color did you get??

[Etherknitter]

Barrow. Brown. Nice fabric.
It is what it is.

L

[Jen A]

IIRC, when I've done either the cable cast on in the past, I've used a crochet hook as my right "needle. Way too hard to pull the working yarn through in between stitches otherwise (although I suppose I could always try it with a less slippery needle such as bamboo; I usually use metal needles). Sorry about the ripping but good luck w/ the redo!

[Elaine in NYC]

Thanks for posting the list of languages. I’m too lazy to look up what I didn’t know. I’m tickled that you measured the swatch before washing. It paid a critical dividend. Also hoping the swatch was a larger size than the CO illustrations. The cable CO is definitely firmer than long-tail, but I actually prefer the purl bump side for the public side of the knitting when I do long-tail. I usually use cable CO for one-row buttonholes and for mitered squares. Also consider casting on in pattern.

[Caroline]

When you said cable cast on was twiddly and fiddly I had to go and look it up to see what I've been doing all this time that I thought was a cable cast on. No, I was doing it right but I don't recognise the twiiddly/fiddly part.

I will share my current mantra "finished is better than perfect". There is so much it applies to, from turkey to knitting

[Lynn]

I could have sworn I posted a long comment on your Mason-Dixon colorwork post, but I don't see it. It's entirely possible I hit Cancel instead of Submit. Or something.

It took me a moment to realize that you are not, in fact, knitting the Man Sweater in pink.

[Margene]

The cable cast on is my favored cast on for sweater knitting because it gives a solid edge and looks clean. I think you'll like it, too. Thank you for the language list and wondered which language you were using, but never thought to ask!