Letters
Calling an Audible
Dear Ann,
I love sports speak. I use expressions that have become part of colloquial language, but the only way I know (vaguely) what they mean in actual sports is by reasoning backwards from what they mean as metaphors. I’m talking about expressions like “out of left field” and “calling an audible.” (Of course it’s audible—you call it—but I am not going to argue with fluent sports speakers.)
The only sports expression I understand from personal experience is “standing in the outfield praying nobody hits it in this direction.”
Anyway, I understand calling an audible to mean making a decision on the field of play that is not what everyone on the team thought they were going to do. And that’s what I’m doing with regard to the very momentous athletic achievement that I am embarking upon soon: knitting my first garment out of our forthcoming first-ever MDK yarn, Atlas.
(Preview for Atlas-curious readers: Atlas is a light worsted weight of US-grown, US-spun, and US-dyed Rambouillet wool, custom milled for MDK. It is divine: three plies with an airy twist, for a perfect sweater—light and warm—and great stitch definition. While we wait in Nashville for the final few colors of the full Atlas palette to arrive, the yarn is available only as part of the Skill Set Box of Joy, which contains three bouncy skeins of it.)
My Brain on Cables
My current project, Junko Okamoto’s Hana Pullover, has cast a spell over me. It’s been ages since I’ve knit a full-on cable project like Hana, and I’m absolutely loving it.
This is the kind of knitting you think about all day while you’re doing the daily chores that prevent you from knitting—you can’t wait to get back to it. The rhythm, the satisfaction of scrolling motifs that neatly divide themselves into the available stitches, the fact that every stitch has its place in the pattern and must be accounted for, and that every mistake is correctible—it’s an absolutely compelling kind of knitting.
After a few commenters expressed concern about how Rowan Denim’s shrinkage would affect the shape of the sweater, I broke down and washed and dried the finished back to test it out.
Bottom piece is pre-shrinkage, top piece is post-shrinkage.
Good news: it shrank exactly as predicted, and most importantly: it shrank evenly, so the overall shape remained the same. Since I made a bigger size to anticipate shrinkage, all is well.
See? After washing (the top piece), it’s smaller, but still sweater shaped. Everything is going to be fine.
I feel the same joy in knitting cables that I get from learning my part in a complicated piece of choral music. Little by little, I learn it, breaking down the tangly bits into single phrases and even measures and notes, until I can loosen my grip on the sheet music and just sing.
I’m having such a good time knitting cables that I don’t want to stop. So: I’m throwing myself a curve ball. I’m redirecting my precious first skeins of Atlas to making a Liberty Tree pullover.
The Liberty Tree pullover is in MDK Field Guide No. 9: Revolution, which contains a fresh and feisty mix of interchangeable cable motifs and sweater silhouettes, all from the brilliant mind of Norah Gaughan.
I’m about to tie up my Hana boat on sleeve island, so my cast-on for the Liberty Tree pullover is still on the horizon, but not too far off.
Here’s a wee sample of how the Liberty Tree cable motif works up in Atlas:
Legal notice: This does not count as casting on, and is not to be construed in any way as cheating on my hana pullover and/or my rhinebeck sweater. It’s just a swatch, gosh!
Love,
Kay
That sound you hear in your closet is your Poweater (aka Swoncho), “Mmm hmmm. NOW she’s into cables. I coulda had cables!”
Love the metaphors and the sweaters. Didn’t know you sing. That’s awesome.
I just finished Norah Gaughan’s Arbor cardigan as my first big cable project. It’s magical what cables can do—people think I’m the most brilliant knitter because it looks so complicated, yet it’s nothing more than 4-stitch cables knitted in the right places. More cables are definitely in my future!
How about Hana in Atlas?
Love your swatch – a perfect match!
Yay for cables and light worsted weight yarn!! Can’t wait to meet Atlas❤ and thank you for explaining “calling an audible”.
I’ve only done small bits of cabling before, but the Hana made me put everything else down. I’ve learned that I love cabling! I’m only starting on piece 2 of back, but I am right there with you on thinking about knitting it all day long when trapped at my ‘real’ job. Currently watching the clock for some lunch break knitting…
Wow. Surprised to see your post. I just purchased this pattern and some De Rerum Natura – Gilliatt to make it. Glad to read your positive comments.
The only sports term I understand is “Aaugh”. Charlie Brown says it every time he tries to kick a football — and Lucy pulls it away at the last minute. Anyway, cables are great (and easy to do), Hana is looking good so far, Liberty Tree should be fun, and hope Olive is ready for the Met Gala!
I keep wanting to knit something with beautiful cables—Hana is so gorgeous—but I always find the motions awkward and frustrating. I love lace, I’ve steeked a Norwegian lice sweater, but cables elude me. Is there a key to doing cables to make them fun? A perfect type of cable needle? Cables without a needle? A type of yarn? Help! Please! (Though maybe this is the wrong place for this plea…if so, please suggest the right place.)
I agree with all the suggestions here. I will say that I do work cables with a cable needle, and my favorite is the style that is a short straight needle with a little bend or narrower spot in the middle, like the Brittany ones we sell. The cable needle just calms my mind and I feel like I can see what I’m doing better when I use one.
When I’ve been away from cables for a while I experience the awkwardness that you describe, and I think it’s because cables require you to stop and start more than other kinds of knitting. At first that seems frustrating. But what I’ve found is that once I’m a few rows into the project, the stopping and starting takes on its own rhythm, and my mind is pleasantly occupied by anticipating what’s happening on the chart on this row. And I particularly enjoy working the WS rows, as a kind of memory test for myself—do I remember the row I just knit, and can I translate it quickly to the WS version of that? The WS rows seem to go like lightning because you’re not making cables, just knitting the knits and purling the purls.
I love my wooden, straight (with a bend in the middle) cable needles. Like the Brittany needles they come in a package of three sizes, so they work with any project. And the wood doesn’t slip so they are easy to work with while they are holding stitches to the front or back, out of the way.
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My very best cable needle is curved like an old fashioned hairpin (long, sort of skinny “U” shape). They have become very difficult to find. However, Knit Picks has a curved one that fits the bill for me. It’s kind of like a wide “V” shape, one leg longer than the other. I scoop the stitches with the short end, let them hang front or back while making the cable, then knit them up off of the longer leg.
I worked with someone who often knit cables without a needle. She held the stitches with her fingers (although I think I remember Ann once talking about a different way). When I tried holding the sittches with my fingers, the cables came out looking a little sloppy.
Cables without cable needle does it for me, a bigger knitting needle if the cable swatch is too tight. I just had a look at the MDK Field Guide No. 9, for the Liberty Tree and other potential!
Cabling without a needle – to my great surprise – turned out to be pretty simple, and I’m not a particularly skilled knitter. Try it, you might like it.
Kay, I’m 20 rows behind you on my Hana and, like you, loving every knitting minute! I’m making mine with Woolstok worsted and it’s soft and squishy. I’ll always prefer the texture of cables over colorwork.
I just discovered the Hana pullover next week! It’s in my queue – and might be moving up quickly…I can’t wait to see the Atlas yarn!
So many cables, so much beauty! Your Atlas swatch looks like a tiny piece of perfection. And you and I are of a mind on sports and singing. Sing on! (I miss choral singing so much.)
Kay, I like that cable swatch in the Atlas yarn. It is both pretty and satisfying in appearance.
Your progress on the Hana Pullover is gorgeous! I also appreciate the confidence that you had in testing out the shrinkage factor. Strange thing is that I also am working on cables. I just began the baby size Antler Toque by Tincan Knits. I am falling in love with cables all over again! I will find a bootie pattern to go along with it. I plan a simple baby blanket, too, in blue stripes. This morning I found some cotton in my stash and started a washcloth for me. So, several projects on the needles is the go! I’m having fun with it.
P.S. — My casting on a washcloth might be cheating on the cable hat. However, no legal notice, as I am knitting in the No Tell Motel.
I wonder what would occur if skeined that yarn and washed it first. It should be worth a try.
Ooooo – I can’t wait for the Atlas yarn to get here! Your swatch looks sooooo nice! And let’s hear it for singers – soprano here!
So just a swatch is sort of like just a kiss. Sometimes they turn into more
There’s daily chores that prevent you from knitting? Really?
So glad the blocking turned out. I was afraid it would go ever which way, as the old-timers would say. I have some of that yarn and love this pattern, so I had a personal interest—but may be too short, thanks to my own shrinkage, to carry it off.