I'm ready for Picture Day 2008

They are done! Suzannah gets the yellow sweater with buttons that she wanted. Augy gets the dark deep blue vest that he wanted. I didn't try to impose my taste on my children. I let them choose the yarn, pattern and buttons.

Suzannah choose some very cute hedgehog buttons for her sweater.




What I learned from knitting these two sweaters:

1. Cabling without a cable needle is easy as long as you don't pull your right needle too far away from your left needle as you are slipping the stitches off the right needle.
2. Cabling without a cable needle goes way faster than with a cable needle.
3. Loosely spun yarn, such as Steadfast Fibers Wonderful Wool, are easier to knit continental than English. Knitting it English undoes some of the twist and makes snagging frequent and annoying. Continental adds some twist and keeps the yarn together. At least that was my experience.

Reversible Rib Cables

Taught my first Reversible Rib Cable class last night. It was a full house (10). The shop where I teach can only handle at most 10 students at a time. I think the class went well. If my students walk away from a class feeling like they learned something they couldn't get from a book or figure out on their own, then I feel like it was a success.





For those of you unfamiliar with reversible rib cables here are pics and a description:





This is a knitting pattern with no wrong sides, ribs, and a different cable on each side. Perfect for afghans and scarves where reversibility is desired.
The two blue swatches are the same swatch (different sides). It was done with Cascade 220 and was my first experience with reversible rib cabling.








The bottom grey scarf as a different cable pattern on either side. It was done with Cascade Baby ALpaca Chunky with done double stranded.
The Cascade baby alapaca Chunky was heavenly soft, but a little too slippery for this project. Plus it didn't block very well. I've started another in Sirdar Nova that I think will go much better.