Life is a Cabaret

Last week, I experienced a tremendous moment of weakness and cast on the Cabaret Raglan by Norah Gaughan. This goes against everything I said I wouldn't do, mainly cast on another project without finishing a work in progress (WIP). But heck, your knitters/crocheters/fiber addicts, so I know you'll understand.

When I first saw this sweater in the Interweave Knits Summer 2004 magazine, it didn't really catch my eye. It was knit with ribbon yarn in pink. Two strikes right off the bat. It's funny how the color of a finished garment will greatly determine if I like the actual sweater. Sometimes when I'm browsing through a knitting magazine, I'm in such "gotta knit this" overload, that I tend to overlook a great pattern because I don't like the color in which it was originally knit. That was the case for the cabaret raglan.

When I saw the sweater again in an e-mail from Knitpicks, I was pretty surprised to find out I had that sweater pattern already in my magazine stash. How did I miss it the first time around? Pink. Ribbon yarn. So, when the sweater was presented in purple with a fetching piece of lace peeking out around the hem, and knit in a standard worsted cotton/wool blend, it caught my eye.

I'm doing a few modifications to the pattern, mainly waist shaping. I shant go into the details of what a waistline does when one passes one's 40th (and 41st, 42nd, etc, etc) birthday, but I really don't want to wear a sweater that is straight as a toothpick. Adding waist shaping is all well and good in theory, but I didn't really know how to do it. Until I pulled my favorite cotton summer sweater out of winter storage. It's my favorite because it has waist shaping and 3/4 sleeves.
I spread that sweater out on the counter and took many measurements. Then I swatched until I hit the right gauge. I cast on the appropriate number of stitches and started knitting. I'm making the sweater just a touch smaller than my favorite (not because I think I'll lose weight, but because the cabaret gauge is much bigger and I fear it will stretch easier.)

Photos as of the other night.
I'll discuss the yarn I'm using in my next post. It's late!
Good night!

p.s. this weekend is the Tennessee Fiber Arts Festival in Dickson, TN...see you there!