• Posted on:August 22nd, 2007
• Comments:No Comment
• Category:Knitting Lady

At the beginning of 2007 I said I would not buy any yarn, unless it was for knitting a gift, or maybe for a pair of socks. I’ve done pretty well, with the only yarn purchased being some cheap cotton yarn for some dishcloths (which have been gifted, mostly) and today’s purchase, two skeins of laceweight for the gifts of all gifts: Ene’s scarf. The goal is to have it finished by Christmas (to be gifted to someone who shall remain nameless), but this might be too ambitious of a goal. I might not have as much time to knit as I have of late. I might, you know, get a day job.

This is the current project. Finishing the Cobblestone Pullover got me all worked up about seamless sweaters. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s seaming. I had seen Elizabeth Zimmerman’s (EZ) books in knitting shops, and I had even opened them. They seemed way beyond me at the time. I had seen the Fishtrap Aran pattern on Flickr and could not stop thinking about it. I figured it was time to pick up “Knitting Without Tears,” and “Knitter’s Almanac” (where the Fishtrap pattern is found).

After finishing Backyard Leaves (what a relief) I turned to Fishtrap. I spent many hours perusing the web for pictures, for hints, for finished objects, looking for some inspiration. My last attempt to knit a sweater with cables ended pretty abruptly. And I spent a lot of time thinking about gauge while out on my training runs, which is something I have never thought of before, or at least given MUCH thought to. I never swatch and have always considered gauge very lightly. And maybe that is why most of my projects have been ripped out or never finished. So what the hell. There was too much cabling work here for me to not give a shit about gauge.

The yarn? I bought some Cascade Ecological Wool in Marquette many months ago, with the intention of making a raglan sweater. Nothing fancy, but I wanted something rustic. I’ve decided to use this for the Fishtrap project, even though I have some doubt of its wearability. Will it be itchy? It is wool, after all.

So after casting on twice and debating and debating over needle size, I took a deep breath and just started going. After what I estimate to be about four hours of knitting, I’m five rows into the second repeat of the Fishtrap (it’s 28 rows and 35 stitches). I suppose I could just stop swatching at this point and start the sweater, but two things prevent that at this point: 1) I don’t have a long enough circular needle, which must be picked up at the knitting shop in town; and 2) it has occurred to me that if I follow EZ’s pattern, I will have to steek. In other words, I’m going to have to cut this baby open to attach sleeves. This pattern is way too involved to not knit in the round, so I’m hosed. I also have yet to find a good tutorial on this that I can understand. Read: a steeking tutorial for Dummies.

So in the meantime, I will continue the cap, because I like it. Not really sure how I’m going to incorporate the decreases at the end, but maybe I will wing it. If anyone has any suggestions for how to do this and still knit within the Fishtrap pattern, I would be most obliged.

Maybe I will chickenshit out and use the Cascade for a seamless raglan or seamless hybrid. But I must say, it does look rather fine as a Fishtrap.