I’m making nice progress on my current WIP:

The pattern is Raga, designed by Violet McQuade, knit from Jamieson’s of Shetland Spindrift. It’s not a hugely complex pattern because there are only seven different colors, but it is a fun knit, and I do like this colorway very much. The pattern offers you a choice of knitting it in one of four different colorways. I managed to restrain myself from going immediately to the green colorway and chose the red colorway instead. The other two choices are grey and blue. You can see the other colorways (and more) in the Ravelry project gallery.

Meanwhile, Loki is as helpful as usual.

I didn’t post last Sunday because I spent the day finishing this:

This is the Saven Pullover, designed by Meghan Babin, knit in Rowan Softyak DK — one of my favorite yarns. I shouldn’t say that out loud: Rowan will discontinue it. 😛

It was an okay knit. I made changes to the center cable to better suit me, as documented in my last blog post. In retrospect, I should have made the side cables mirror image of each other, as that would have made the raglan decreases match. Also, I think in the larger size, the armholes are too large — it looks like they were simply increased in the same proportions as the same as the length of the body to the armholes. So all in all, I rate the pattern an “eh.”

Next I knit my “palate cleanser:”

This is Selbie Mouse, designed by Manon Lemaire. The pattern was beautifully written and as far as I can tell technically perfect, but is definitely not for beginner knitters! My little mouse was knit from Biscotte Yarn Bis-sock on size 0, 1, and 2 dpns. 

I took time out from knitting to make this:

And I started this:

So . . . busy week! Loki is clearly exhausted by my industry.

I finished the back for the Saven sweater last night.

I made a change to the center cable panel. The pattern has you wrap instead of cross the center nine cables of each repeat of the motif (a repeat is 48 rows) — like a smocking stitch. I am not a fan of wrapping stitches like that, so I changed those to cable crosses. Because I can!

Speaking of “because I can,” Loki exerts his independence.

My “preview of coming attractions” from last week’s post is the start of Saven, a design by Meghan Babin.

The pattern has you knit the sleeves first, so I did just that.

You may or may not have noticed immediately that one sleeve has several mis-crossed cables. (Or is the photo too small?) I only noticed them when I was beyond that point and did not feel it necessary to go back and correct. I posted a photo of that sleeve on Instagram because I was curious: would people notice the errors immediately or not? The answer is: some did, some did not, some noticed after scrutinizing the photo for a bit.

The sleeve on the left has all cables properly crossed. But honesty compels me to admit that I mis-crossed two cables. For some reason that is a real mental block for me. I don’t follow the chart because the pattern is pretty easy, and I get in a zone and don’t pay attention.

I did not, however, rip back. I duplicate-stitched over the two mis-crossed cables.

In other news, Loki is still enjoying retirement!

I finished my HANA pullover earlier this week. And I really like it!

I knit this from a cotton blend yarn, Nako Denim, that I had purchased from Webs earlier in the year. (I used stash yarn: SCORE!) I would have enjoyed the knitting more if I had knit it in wool, but knew it would be way too warm for me to ever wear if I did so.

I then immediately cast on a project with this:

This skein was a retirement gift from my now former co-worker Bob. Fun fact: I taught Bob to knit over ten years ago and MadTosh Pashmina is his favorite yarn. He has excellent taste!

I made this:

This is Melanie Berg’s Calligraphy Hat, a perfect pattern for this yarn.

And here is a preview of coming attractions:

And Loki is enjoying being retired!