I should be sleeping. It’s 1:23 in the morning, and Joe went to bed about an hour and a half ago. Normally, he’s the one to stay up till all hours of the morning engrossed in a video game or something. Tonight, it’s me. I was engrossed in the baby sweater I’m knitting.
I started designing this little sweater a few weeks ago when I finished knitting the blanket. I’m using a pale pink sport weight wool – the old Pomfret yarn from Brunswick that they stopped making 20-some years ago, and which I hoard collect. The stitch pattern is a Bavarian Twist style, or cables to you lay people out there; and I’m doing it in the round, with a planned steek for the cardigan front. It’s coming together nicely enough. Tonight I was working on one of the most interesting parts. I had finished the body and both sleeves up to the underarms, and it was time to attach the arms on and knit all the way around the yoke of the sweater. Some thinking was required at this point, and I had to decide exactly where to place the decreases going up toward the collar while maintaining the existing stitch patterns.
This is the beginning of the really exciting part of working on any sweater for me. As you get closer and closer to the neckline, you have fewer and fewer stitches over which to work, which means that things speed up with every decrease row knit. There is the added fun of figuring out how to fit in the back-of-neck shaping, a challenge I’m still pondering on this sweater – how to get it in without ruining the rhythm of the stitch patterns. In fact, I may just have to wait till Monday and ask the knitting ladies to help solve that little puzzle. On top of that, one can anticipate the final steps of securing the steek, cutting the center front opening and knitting on the button band. Will it be ribbing? Seed Stitch? Garter? Oh my!
The project comes closer and closer to completion and the mind starts wandering on to the next project lurking in the wings. Will it be a matching sweater for Julie? I’m not so sure now – I’m already a little tired of Bavarian Twists, as beautiful as this one is coming out. Could I squeeze in some new glittens or a hat for myself? I should really knit up another little pair of socks for the new baby…or start a simple project or two for knitting around and around once the baby arrives. Never mind all the projects that I *should* do for the important people in my life. Or that there are many non-knitting projects begging for attention in the limited number of free evenings pre-baby, although I really truly do intend to catch Julie’s scrapbook up to date in the next month or so.
With a mind so a’buzz, how can a girl go to sleep? Well, time to go lay in bed, close my eyes and give it a try. Julie will wake us up by 8, leaving me just over six hours to get some rest. The little sweater and all the other projects will wait another day, and provide me with another day’s worth of distraction from the grind.
Hi,
I just found your blog. I was searching for Bavarian twist directions! I am a fairly new knitter and obsessed with cables. Now I want to learn the BT can you give me any recommendations of where to begin? I live in northern Indiana however spent every summer in Northern Minnesota on Mille Lacs lake! Thanks for your time and now I am going to go read your blog!
Janet