MidCoast cable cardigan is coming along great. Now that Henry VIII is in the mail, it's almost like a weight is off my shoulders. Not fun to knit so many tiny stitches on something you aren't really enjoying. Because I do like to have a stranded project going also, I'll enjoy the Oversize Panel Cardigan. After yet more garden cleanup today, I'll ball up the colors I chose.

Henry VIII is taking a trip tomorrow to Oregon, winging his way to another home. I just never fell in love with Henry and the colors. The yarns are gorgeous and each one on its own would be incredible in a solid color sweater. But (for me) the sweater was just not colorful enough. Since each row takes about 22 minutes to knit, it was a huge time commitment to keep going on something I didn't love. The pattern is beautifully written as always. My online knit friend Helen in Oregon is now the proud owner of Henry VIII. May he reign her house well.

Helen also moderates a Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mara_class/. The group will be doing a KAL (knit along) and we'll be making any sweater from Alice Starmore's "Book of Fair Isle Knitting" which has just been reprinted. I forced myself to wait to Sunday before getting out all the boxes of J&S two ply jumper weight wool and start the happy search for colors. I've been going back and forth between the "Oversize Panel Cardigan" on Page 136 and the "Child's Panel Gansey" on Page 117 of the reprint of Alice Starmore's "Book of Fair Isle Knitting". I like the vertical lines of the Oversize and the colors of the Child's. Most of the blues I have are fairly dark and most of my completed fair isles are also fairly dark. So... I'm going to make the Oversize in lighter colors similar to the book colors. I miss the sweater schematic like in most of her other books as it's easy to see the sweater construction and figure out what you are going to change.



I have all the colors in stash except for the Jamieson & Smith jumper weight #96 which I've been told is a lot like #66. I have one skein of that but would never dream of using it for the main body of a sweater. I have some Harrisville shetland yellowy beige which will be perfect. It comes on a cone but it's all skeined off and washed ready for use.



I know I'm going to make an inset sleeve and it won't be as long in the body as the pattern. I'll be knitting in the round with a front steek. The neckline will probably end up tighter than hers usually are. I also might not make the darker colors go all the way around the sweater but use more areas of solid light color. That means swatching!