Lickety-Split

No small part of the charm of the Jane Wolff Scott cardigan is the speed with which it is rendered.  The yarn I needed for another project was delayed by one day, so *O Bother* I was forced to play with beautiful blue for a while.  And this happened:

Can you believe that?  The yoke is almost done - I'm only a few rounds away from dividing the sleeves from the body!  The neckline looks strange here because the first and last 13 sts of every round are the knitted-on placket; the edges actually fold under at the end. 

And how about those cables?

They are really fun to make; you braid 3 sets of 2 sts (the original pattern calls it "Double Twist Cable") all on one row - super sexy.  Of course, any 6-st cable can be substituted here; my mom played fast and loose with all sorts of different cables in the many times she knit this pattern.  She even did one version with big juicy 8-st cables, which would have been an easy substitution for her by the umpty-millionth iteration.

That's one of the many delights of this pattern.  By the time you have finished it, you have a very clear idea of how it could be reversed, gauge-swapped, differently-cabled and/or placketed.  My mom's many versions were mostly governed by how much yarn she didn't have, so she altered the lengths of body and sleeves to accommodate that.  There's even one version where she saved yarn by facing the front plackets with grosgrain ribbon rather than knitted facings.  Clever Lady.

The yarn for my "real" project arrived, after all, so Bluey is going to the back burner for a bit (if I can control myself - no promises). 

Possibly the best part of this experiment is communing with my mother's knitting.  It's a little bit like being with her.  The many many hours of my life spent working by her side are so much a part of me that holding her knitting in my lap right next to my own feels a bit like old times. Thank you, Gentle Readers, for encouraging me to pursue my goal of sharing it with you.