What an Interesting Day!

Well that was interesting and I do not mean that with any sarcasm at all.  It was just interesting.

This is where the day started.  I was not feeling really comfortable with the pattern at this point.  Casting on a stitch in the yellow and the weird purl instructions were a thing I could not wrap my mind around.  I looked at pictures and I couldn't see where this oddness was going.  I confess, I was just about ready to do my own thing because I was struggling with the oddity and just felt as if it was needless when you looked at the end result of the sweater.  I went and made another cup of coffee while I thought about things and took a little time out.

I read the whole pattern through.  I read the blurb on the sweaters Ravelry page.  And then I understood.  By the time I was finished with these three rows of knitting, my nice hot cup of coffee had had one sip out of it and was  cold.

That just never happens with coffee here.  I usually get at least half done before I forget it.  But this?  This was such an interesting opportunity to learn a really interesting new technique. I was totally immersed and entertained by the chance to learn something new in a project I was doing anyway.  And over three rows.  Not threatening at all and repeated often enough that if I was ever faced with the need for the technique again, I could do it without any problem at all.

To be strictly honest, Briggs & Little Sport is a fairly sticky sort of yarn, perfect for colourwork in my mind, and could have easily be fine without doing this technique, but once I understood what was going on, it seemed like an opportunity with no real time committment.

Ladderback Jacquard.  The first time I saw it was on the Rainey Sisters Blog, and I have been thinking about trying one of the designs for hats designed as tutorials for the technique.  Now I don't have to. 

You can see two of the short inside the sweater tier of stitches holding the floats in place with no stress on the stitches to the outside finish.  Or would be if I had done every single one correctly.  I think there are two spots that will need a wee bit of a duplicate stitch.  Yes my purls are twisted but that is a personal preference that is much more natural for me to produce and speedier to me too.  To anyone else, it would not be.  There it is.

This morning I will be trying on the sweater to see where I am with repsect to the length of the yoke.  And then onwards.  Once the body and sleeves are separated, this sweater will become zoom knitting.  

What an interesting and inspiring sort of day.