No yarn was harmed in the ripping of this sweater.

I'm still unsure about what to do about the High Neck Cable*, but the first, and most painful, step has been taken.

I had to rip. There really wasn't any getting around it. For one thing, as Kristy pointed out, alpaca is hot. A close-fitting alpaca turtleneck might not be the best idea, especially if you live in Texas and your office is like a sauna already.

So then the question was, how far do I rip? I could rip just some of the waist shaping and leave out a few decreases, or I could take it back to before the waist shaping and knit a straight tube as the pattern suggests. What I did not want to do was rip the whole thing out. And yet I knew that I'd never be happy with it, and it was my own fault. I started deviating from the pattern at row one by extending the cables into the ribbing. That, combined with my severe waist shaping, caused the center panel to bow out a little bit over my belly instead of forming a slimming straight column. Not. Flattering.

While I was mulling over what to do, I came across Kim Hargreaves' Heartfelt collection. While there's nothing there that I particularly itch to knit, I do like the look of the cream-colored sweaters with dark horn buttons. And then I saw Chic Knits Twist which reminded me about the Beaverslide Fisherman Weight yarn in Fringed Sagewort that I picked up when I bought the yarn for my husband's Tomten, thinking maybe I'd make one for myself someday. It might be pretty in cables, like that Land's End sweater I want.

And then suddenly, I had an idea. How about a High Neck Cable in a tweedy neutral yarn with dark horn buttons?

I swatched, and I'm liking the fabric best at just under 3.5 stitches to the inch. It could work, but I still need to ruminate a little bit before casting on. I think I might prefer more drape and less bulk with this pattern, but I'd really like to use yarn I already have. Maybe even the Suri Merino.

Perhaps I should devote some time to Mom's sweater before I decide.

*Correction: I stated before that the High Neck Cable pattern doesn't specify finished measurements. It does; I just apparently can't read. Or follow directions.

In other news, the Frostrosen Mittens are finished. And since we have a projected high of 75 degrees Fahrenheit this sunny November day, I suppose I can't control the weather with my needles after all. Humbug.

These are from the kit at Nordic Fiber Arts, which includes the pattern and two skeins of Rauma Finullgarn. I like this yarn so much, I've ordered a color card and several skeins for the bounty of mittens and gloves I plan to knit. It's hairy and sticky, which makes colorwork considerably easier, and blocks to a nice fabric with a decent drape and doesn't itch. I made the medium size (using US2s) and they seem to fit nicely. I've never had mittens before, so I don't really have anything to compare them to. Others have noted that this style of mittens comes out long to accommodate the use of the double motif; I have maybe half an inch of extra fabric at the fingertips, but I have long fingers.

When I knit the first motif, I left out the very center stitch and didn't realize it until I got to the same spot in the second motif. Instead of correcting it, I just repeated it. But it started bugging me, so after all was said and done I pulled out some Palette from my stash and duplicate stitched the center stitch in light blue. It adds a little something, I think.

I'll try to get some better pictures later, but in the meantime here are some more detailed pictures of the first one. The second looks remarkably the same.

My latest obsession is Folk Knitting in Estonia. I have had this book on my shelf for a while, but hadn't knit anything from it. Now I want to knit almost everything. So, why not start with the first pattern in the book?

The design is created with a technique called roositud, which is achieved by weaving the contrasting yarn between the stitches as you knit them. It's a little tricky at first, but very addictive. I'm having serious one-more-row-itis with this glove, and I want to roositud everything now.

I love the patterning on the fingers. Remember the episode of Sex and the City where Samantha's beau gave her a large canary diamond to wear on her middle finger so he'd have something pretty to look at when she, er, gave him the one-finger-wave? Heh.