The making of my most ambitious knitting project

I have been looking at this Saddle Shouldered Aran Cardigan for months....wishing I could do something like that. So, to test my knitting abilities, I decided to knit cable socks. And it was quite painless so, I went online and purchased the pattern from Schoolhouse Press. As a relatively novice knitter, I follow patterns. I don't improvise. When the pattern arrived in the mail, I was mortified. I would describe the pattern to be more of a guide. After lots of googling, blog and book reading, and watching steek demos on youtube, I understood enough to get started.

So I did lots of calculations, based on Scott's measurements and cable patterns I wanted to use. I found myself enjoying this planning stage of crafting the cardigan a lot. So on January 1st (2010), I balled my eight skeins of Briggs & Little wool from NS and made a swatch (see below). I even steeked the swatch.

On January 5th, I started the main body.

Today, I decided to stop the body and start the sleeves....I'll keep you posted.

It's another 1.5 weeks later now, and the trunk of the body is complete (see below).Now, for the sleeves. I cast on the recommended 25% of the total number of stitches (minus steek stitches) but I wish I cast on more. I also wish I'd chosen the ribbed route for the underarm. You'll see later.

Basically, using my own uneducated discretion, I ended up with a skinny sleeve in the forearm and a loose sleeve above the elbow. I would have liked it to be more uniform. Anyway, I had to stretch (by blocking) the forearm portion of the sleeves quite a bit to be the size I wanted.


Then, was the chore of deciphering the instructions of doing the yoke. Adding the sleeves was painless. I understand the concept of saddle-shoulder now - mostly thanks to this website: http://www.spindling.com/sweater_knitting_pattern.html. Below is my sweater pre-blocking.


Next is the moment I've been dreaming/dreading - steeking. I read and re-read the instructions by Eunny to visualize. I practiced a bit and went to town. I used an earthy green (that won't show in the final product (it'll only be seen on the inside of the cardigan).


After steeking, I decided to block the sweater. I needed to - to reassure myself that the cardigan will look okay. Bunched up and lumpy - I was feeling a bit disappointed with the quality of my work. Blocking (I think) made it look much better....plus I wanted to do my stretching and flattening BEFORE I cut my sweater right down the front. Below is my sweater drying after having a shower.


So, last night (January 25th), I cut the sweater. Pictured below is *just* before and after the what-I-hope-to-be-successful-cut.


Up until now, I've been using my lovely Japanese interchangeable bamboo knitting needles from Patchwork Frog. The only downside so far is that I cannot attach one cable to another to extend the length of my cables.....and for the size needle I'm using, the set doesn't include long enough cable to do the band that I want to run the vertical length of the front opening, around the neck and back down the other side. I need to borrow my friend's cable needle for that. Next is knitting on a garter stitch band around the base. I shall do that this week (maybe today & tomorrow).