My (current) knitting nemesis

Have I introduced you to my most recent nemesis?

It's the Starsky sweater pattern from Knitty.com. I love Knitty, but... Well, this pattern marks the first time I have ever... ...ever? Ok; not ever. It happened once before and that project is still unfinished (for the knitting record, my only unfinished project). This pattern marks the second time I have put a project aside. Granted, I put the left front aside in order to start the right front section, but giving up is not my style. I'm a perfectionistic follow-througher. So, what is it about this sweater that led to such a dramatic change in knitting philosophy? The cables.

I love cables. They add texture to a knitted garment. They're easy to put in. They look great. However, this is not a cable pattern I have encountered before or will attempt again. These aren't strict cables. The "cabled" stitches form a vine pattern from both the front and the back; the pattern repeats over 12 rows. Clearly you can envision that this pattern is not as predictable as plain cables. To complicate matters, the pattern calls for decreasing stitches to shape the sweater meanwhile maintaining the vine pattern. This is mucho complicado. (The arms are pictured at left; they don't have any pattern on 'em. They were a breeze!)

Working this pattern (the part shown in the photo to the left in particular) requires an attention span I don't possess combined with an attention to detail I lack whilst doing multiple things at once (I have been watching the TV show Heroes while knitting this garment). An indication of true tragedy, both the TV show watching and the knitting have suffered.

Trouble started when the two characters who speak mostlyJapanese were introduced. The producers were kind to us ethnocentric Americans and subtitled the Japanese dialogue. However, I can't work the cable pattern without watching the stitches nor can I read the subtitles without having my eyes on the screen. I am going to come out of this experience knowing only half the plot of Heroes with a sweater that has mismatched bits. The mismatched bits sweater (a.k.a. Dollar and a Half Cardigan by Veronik Avery, Interweave Knits, Spring 07) was going to be the next project! What happened here?

In fact, this whole mess started with the uncooperativeness of the mismatched sweater. I had started the mismatched sweater using the very same wool yarn that is now the Starsky sweater, but it was not turning out properly. So, I went on a hunt for yarn appropriate for the mismatched sweater pattern, found it (Butterfly mercerized cotton in a sage green), and was all excited to get going on mismatched sweater when Julie gave me the Starsky pattern (damn her!). I was so hell-bent on using the wool yarn that I started right in on the new pattern without a second thought to my new, beautiful green cotton yarn and formerly coveted mismatched sweater pattern.

So here I am, struggling through the Starsky sweater out of principle and no longer out of desire to finish the sweater. The lovely green cotton yarn beckons to me from the knitting basket aside the couch. And the hand knit Christmas presents (the ideas for which were born of my last blog post) remain concepts of my imagination.

P.S. - Photos of the completed sweater to follow someday. The photos above depict the pieces drying having been rinsed in cold water and then pinned to the towels to work out the curled edges to make sewing up easier.