Not Knitting Socks...

I have been bitten by the cable bug.

I started with a pair of cable socks, but these are a disaster, because I can never get them to fit right. It takes me multiple tries...right now, these are awaiting frogging:

[too-small socks awaiting their frogging]

The yarn is Tosh Sock, which I'm not in love with. The colourway (cove), yes, but the quality of the yarn....no. This particular skein fell into short ends - it had breaks every few meters. Very frustrating to knit with, and hence I'm not in a rush to frog them, either. So they will languish for some time....

Meanwhile, my urge to cable has not diminished. So I've been knitting an Aran sweater for my son's birthday:

[St. Enda sweater for my son]

This is my first Aran, ever! The pattern is one of Alice Starmore's (St. Enda), and is truly spectacular. I made some very minor modifications: managed to carry the small cables on the cuffs into the main body, and modified the neck by making it really long and folding it inwards. 

The beautiful yarn is from a lady in my knitting group, she bought it in Scotland or Ireland decades ago and it had been languishing in her stash. She wanted to give it a good home...it truly is wonderful stuff. Not soft, but a nice crisp yarn with good body.  Heirloom quality that won't pill or sag. The colour is impossible to photograph, it's a dark teal/green with lots of flecks in it. 

I'm now knitting an Aran for myself - my own "design" (ie. just pick a few cable patterns from your nearest stitch dictionary). Again it takes some time to get the width right because even knitting up swatches isn't really good enough...I usually start with the sleeves (in the round) and use them as giant swatches, but even so it took me 3 times to get the back width correct. 

[Misty thinks it's hers]

This yarn is from Beaverslide Dry Goods - their Fisherman's 3 ply - and it is quite soft, with little elasticity, so not as nice to knit with as that green stuff, above. My hands get quite tired from it. But the cat seems to like it. It's spun in Alberta from Montana merinos, so pretty local.

Finally, I have my eye on this beautiful design, which I'm hoping one of my menfolk will desire as much as I. I'm thinking of using Briggs and Little, which is a Canadian yarn I've recently tried for the first time - very springy and woolly.