Savory Knitalong: Cruising Along

Our Amy Christoffers Knitalong kicked off on Wednesday, and I don’t know about you, but I’ve been cruising along on my Larch progress! I forgot to measure it this morning, but I’m guessing I’m about 7″ into the bottom of the cardigan.

I churned out a good portion last night while watching the first disc of season 2 of Community (a show I would like to add to Allyson’s list of Mindless TV for Knitters, ahem). I’m making things a little more challenging for myself by adding to the overall length of the body. This is “challenging” because you probably know how much I hate purling, which is an integral part to back and forth Stockinette stitch. If you’re newer to the blog and have missed my anti-purling diatribes, just know that I hate it. A lot. But because I’m on the taller end of the spectrum and I have a belly I figured a little extra length was in order. Originally I’d planned to add a lot of length, but then I remembered that Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca Light is 50% alpaca, which means this cardigan is going to stretch out a bit over time (the other 50% is wool, which will help keep it in check to some extent, but if you’re using this yarn for Larch, expect some stretch overtime). So I worked an extra inch of length before beginning the subtle decreases, and I’m working two extra rows in between decrease rows, for an addition of 2″ in the body of the cardigan. Such a small amount of increase will be incredibly subtle but very helpful, I think. If I am indeed at about 7″ now, I’ve got about 10″ more to knit before starting the neck shaping. Thankfully I have a lot of other mindless DVDs to watch this afternoon and evening.

This part of the pattern is really super easy. The beginning is a smidgen tricky, in that you work in twisted rib for a few rows, bind off, and then pick up all those stitches. At first this seemed a bit finicky to me, but then I thought more about it, and realized that binding off the stitches and picking them back up makes for an extremely smooth transition between the ribbing and the Stockinette. You’ve probably noticed that when you move from ribbing to Stockinette, there’s usually a little ripple, a little ruching that happens at the beginning of the Stockinette portion. Not only does Amy’s pattern eliminate that ruching effect, it also provides an incredibly minor detail that I’m kind of in love with.

Don’t ask me why, but I adore that little solid line that marks the change from ribbing to Stockinette. It’s almost like piping detail, and if there’s one thing I love, it’s small tailoring details.

In the scope of the knitalong, there’s no reason for me to be knitting this as quickly as I feel like I am. I have until March 31, technically, and there’s no ribbon or anything for finishing super early. However, I am insane and a little infected by the knitalong bug, and have decided to attempt to knit two cardigans in two months. See, Allyson is leading a Delancey knitalong (in case you don’t know, Delancey is this super sassy cardigan that I’ve been longing for since I first saw it). I tried to resist and say “No, I will not knit two cardigans at once!” but the more Allyson talks about it on her blog and on Twitter, the more I realized I had a perfect opportunity to wind up with two amazing cardigans in a relatively short amount of time. So I signed up to knit Delancey as well!

I’m cruising along on my Larch and ignoring my stripey socks almost completely right now so that I can get a good chunk done when it comes time to dig into Delancey. The hold up right now is that a) the knitalong hasn’t started anyway and b) I don’t have yarn yet.

YES, I’m going to have to order yarn for this knitalong. Which goes against my goal of not buying yarn this year, except for souvenir yarn. BUT (watch me justify!), I’m ordering specific yarn for a specific purpose and will cast on almost immediately upon receiving said yarn. AND I’m getting a better-than-expected tax refund, so what’s the harm in spending a little bit of money on yarn for a project I will make immediately? I’m not randomly buying yarn to make myself feel better about something (or simply because it’s shiny), and I will be using it up as fast as I can, rather than letting it languish in my stash for years. I’m okay with this decision. I’m planning to place my order tonight at WEBS for some Berroco Vintage DK in Cracked Pepper for the main color and Cork for the contrast.

To add “psychotic” to the current moniker of “insane” that I’ve given myself, I really really really want to have both cardigans finished before I go to NYC at the end of March. For no other reason than I want to wear my sassy new cardigans in one of the sassiest cities on the planet. So, if all goes to plan, you’ll be getting a double-whammy of cardigan knitting, starting in a week or so.

If you’re knitting along with the Amy Christoffers KAL, please be sure to let me know if you update your blog! And don’t forget, use and follow hastag #savorykal on Twitter to see what other people are saying. And be sure to rest your wrists if you’re a nutjob like me.