Yakity-Yack, My FLAK's Back

The Astoria Stitchfest was a bona fide success, thanks to the organizers and participants.  We all agreed we can't wait to do it again next year, so stay tuned and plan accordingly!

Still warm from the glow of my time among the knitters, I spent some quality time with my sweater yesterday.  It's complete to the bottom of the armholes, so now I'll put the stitches on a holder and start working the front neckline curve.  

Things I love about my FLAK back, in no order:

1.  The mixture of small, medium and large cables.

2.  The combination of open vs. rope-like texture.

3.  The (unusually) restrained use of bobbles. I think I hit the sweet spot for how many.

4.  The fortunate mistake in cable placement that I made in my initial plan. I originally had the bobbled vines cordoned off from the center heart cable with more mini cables between.  That arrangement meant that my neckline would start in the center of each vine cable, which was awkward. Removing the extra mini cables made the vines connect to, and frame the hearts in a much better way.  Making the big swatch of 1/2 the back that Janet recommends in the workbook totally saved my bacon.  I would never have known to make the change, otherwise.

In the meantime, I'm designing something new for next year's Madrona Winter Retreat.  I've been asked to make another Eeek! Steeks! exclusive, so keep a weather eye on the horizon.

And don't think I forgot that I promised you a contest!  Remember this?:

It's no less than 2,610 yards of Elann loveliness, just for one very special winner's FLAK!  This is the very same yarn I'm  making my FLAK from, in the classic Aran Ivory. What do you have to do to win it?  I'll tell you next post.  In  the meantime, tell your friends: I know you'd never hold out on sharing a free yarn opportunity with your fellow knitters!