yarn v. sandia

I don't know why we always must be at odds, but this black cotton yarn and I don't seem to get along. I have conceptualized it as multiple projects, all of which have somehow defied me.

1) The "sitcom chic" from Knitty, a raglan-sleeve cardigan with an eyelet detail, stalled on the needles and stayed there for over a year. I eventually figured that it was too much stockinette knitting and I didn't feel challenged enough

2) Post-ripping, which was a huge pain in the butt, I thought it could be this other cardigan that had horizontal ribbing and godets at the side seams and sleeve cuffs. I managed to lose interest in this pattern too. Maybe it was because it was in French and I was too lazy to translate the pattern or maybe it was because I had again reached the unexciting stockinette section of the knitting process. This one stayed on the needles only about three months before being ripped. Is this progress?

3) The next idea I had for the yarn was the “spring fling” cardigan. Blame it on the bad name. Spring fling sounds like clichéd collegiate event. I still like the design, but the yarn defied me when I was swatching it. It laughed at me, I swear. I won’t let you make gauge, neener neener. It doesn'’t help that I hate swatching. If you can recall from my previous posts, I'’m not that enthralled with knitting rectangles, but they are necessary to ensure the good fit of the garment, blah blah blah.

4) The new plan is to make up a pattern from the book I just bought by Teva Durham. It'’s a cardigan (surprise). I am extending my personal belief that I cannot have too many black tank tops to also include black cardigans. Right now, I have one black cardigan that had a rhinestone zipper. Somehow, with all of my brute strength, I managed to pull the zipper pull straight off of the sweater within weeks of receiving it. That hasn'’t stopped me from wearing it, since I may like it better unzipped and the rhinestones being a little more dispersed on each side of the center front. I’'m too lazy to take a photograph of the sweater, although that doesn’t stop me from writing an exposition on my history with this black softball cotton yarn, but anyway, the back of this design includes an openwork medallion.

Durham writes that another sweater that was published in Interweave knits awhile back, perhaps called the Sunburst Pullover, inspired her. I actually bought that magazine thinking I would make the pattern, but never came across the right yarn. Now I can make this one, if when my swatch dries it is close to making gauge. If not, the yarn will laugh at me again, I will get mad and give up on the cardigans altogether, unless it somehow miraculously makes gauge for sweater plan #3…

Sorry, this post originally had pictures showing those designs that have now fallen by the wayside, but blogger rebelled and you will just have to use your imaginations. I think I linked to pictures when I babbled about them in the past.