Cables, A Lot of Them

A while back, Elann had a bag sale on its house brand Peruvian Donegal.  I'd never used this yarn but always curious about it.  I decided to splurge after seeing the lovely feature design.  I bought two bags.  One bag is never enough for a sweater, and often two bags are too much.  I figured I can always make a vest or few hats or mittens with the extra.

I really liked the yarn when I opened up the box.  I actually just let the bags of yarn hang out in the living room and never bothered to store it.  Somehow, I knew I wanted to get to it soon, and constantly seeing it would give me some ideas what to do with it.

I did get to it in 3 weeks.  With 20 balls of yarn I decided to go with a very basic cable long coat with straight forward silhouette, big ribbing button bands and collars.  I knitted up a big swatch with a stitch pattern I found on a book.  When I started knitting, I changed the stitch pattern somewhat.  It was the same stitch count for each repeat, so no need to recalculate.  I did a quick small swatch just to see the modification of stitch pattern I had in mind would look alright.

It was a lot of cabling since there are total 11 columns of cables, and cabling twice every 10 rows.  It felt like it was going on forever especially with the longer than usual sweater length.  Cables, and more cables.

The yarn was nice to work with.  It's nothing fancy, but I really like it.  I like how basic it looks when knitted up, yet it's not too scratchy (though not next to skin wear.)  I want to make more sweaters with this yarn in different colors.   While knitting I was afraid it will get too heavy to wear with all that yarn.  But when I tried it on after sewing the shoulders together, it didn't feel heavy at all.

It came out slightly bigger on the shoulder because the ribbing tend to stretch out a bit comparing to measuring it in swatch.  That's the minor thing I'd fix it if I were to make it again.  But all in all, I'm in love with this sweater.  It's nothing clever, nothing fancy, nothing designy, just a good o' cable sweater with a belt.  It's so me.  It is comfortable,  it is warm.  Many of the sweaters I make I only wear them when I go out, and I don't wear them to work (except accessories) and they become a bit precious. The reason I can't wear them to work is I know I'll inevitably get some charcoal or paint on them.  But this one, I can see myself wearing it all the time, even to work.  In fact I wore it around the house all afternoon today 'cause it was so very snuggly and warm for this cold winter day.   

It was knitted bottom up with front and back as one piece up to armpit.  The set-in sleeves were knitted separately.   Then I pick up stitches along the front for button bands, then pick up stitches along neckline for collar, all these were done in 2x2 ribbing, so was the belt.

I had only 2 balls left.  I think I can make a matching hat.

I didn't even have to buy buttons.  I found exactly 4 buttons in my button bag that are the right size and are gray. Perfect.

I'm now dreaming of another sweater using the same yarn in brown.... or maybe white...