I am a most fortunate knitter in that a good internet friend Junie parted with her Virtual Yarns kit for the Autumn Oregon cardigan. She felt it was too far back in her knitting queue to ever get to and sold it to me. Thanks again Junie! I wonder if I can force myself not to start this sweater until the KnitALong for it starts in January? Ha! The colors are truly amazing with tiny twists of complementary colors inside each skein. The yarn also feels a tiny bit thicker than the Jamieson&Smith I've been using for fair isles. Patience woman! Get through the holidays and then sit by your fireplace and knit those blizzards away.

Hemsdale, a Dale of Norway, cardigan is done and drying on the wooly board. It was started as a Knit-A-Long on a Yahoo knitting group last January but it was put aside all summer as it is a very heavy sweater. It is knit out of Heilo for everything except the camel color which is Tiur. Needle size was US#4. The sleeve steeks were knit wider, not the one stitch commonly used with Dale sweaters and were reinforced with two lines of machine sewing. The button holes are crocheted loops instead of set in button holes. This will be a Christmas gift for my daughter who lives in North Carolina where I doubt it will ever get cold enough for her to wear the sweater. Who knows? Maybe she will one day move somewhere colder.

Fulmar is going to be a pullover. Once I really looked over the sweaters I wear a lot, pullover won the race as those are the sweaters I wear the most. Fronts of the saddles are picked up, knit down to bottom of the neck and stitches cast on. The front is now about 6 rows down below the neck.



I am taking a short break from Fulmar to finish up Hemsdale. Body is totally done, steeked and ready to sew the finished sleeves in. Add the buttons and button loops and put on the wooly board and it's done for a Christmas gift.

Fulmar back panel is done and put on a holder. It measures just over 9-1/2" and is 3-1/2 repeats of Chart E. Now to pick up the fronts and knit down until the front matches the back in length. At that point, width can be added to the body and front and back joined and then knit in the round. Knitting from the top down in this method was created by Janet Szabo and is called FLAK. I can get a bit further before deciding whether to make a pullover or a cardigan. I should go through all my sweaters and see which ones are worn the most and that I like the m ost. That count will help the decision process.

Well that taught me a lesson. Do NOT take a sweater like Fulmar on a camping trip. Knitting without paying strict attention (like knitting with a headlight) just doesn't work. Tonight I was so close to putting the back on a thread and picking up one of the fronts. Last check of the cables. I'm usually so good about double checking over/under/over/under on the cables like Chart C. Thought I had been checking but there EIGHT rows back is a wrong cross right in the middle of the cable.



Laddered back but all 20 stitches have to be laddered and it is not going to knit back correctly. I decided to just go ahead and pull the whole eight rows. I'd already laddered back on the first Cable B to fix a bad cross and that one looked sorta okay but not great.

Moral of the story??? Every time you do a cable cross, double check to be sure it is going the right way. Not every 3-4 rows but every row. Laddering just doesn't work well when the gauge is so tight.



Sigh....at least there is no deadline on this one. The small white ring marks another cross that is incorrect but it is NOT going to be corrected. If ever I'll try the method of cutting the thread, reknitting the tiny cross and sewing it.

Erin is totally done and worn for the first time today. Our local library has a knit hour twice a week. Today the librarian and I were the only ones there and we had a super time just yakking and knitting. Not sure she believed that Erin was a hand made sweater.

It was a fun knit. Not sure I would put 13 buttons on a sweater again as buttonholes aren' t my favorite thing. I will reblock the arms as I stretched them too long on the woolyboard. Scottish wool is pretty forgiving so it should block back a bit.

What's next? Working on Fulmar. Half a chart repeat to go to have the top of the back long enough. Next will be to pick up the front saddles and start the top of the cardigan fronts.

Gave the Symbolic Knots sweater pictured on September 18th post to my daughter today. The body fit her perfectly and the green color really looked good on her. I thought the arms were too long but she like it - and also has a friend who can rip them back and rebind off if needed. Got 5-6 rows of Fulmar knit last night while watching "The Next Iron Chef". Hope there aren't any errors when I look at it tonight.

Erin is DONE! 13 buttons sewn on with a spare on the back of the button band. What few ends hadn't been spit spliced were sewn in. It's washed and on the wooly board but it is too dark tonight to get a good photo. As usual, the Starmore charts and directions were super. Next time I make a Starmore dropped shoulder sweater, I'll be cutting back on the sidth of the upper arms as there is just too much fabric for these short arms. Photos tomorrow.