Tentative Beginnings

Hi! I'm Alice from The Knitting Princess and the Pea and this is my first time on a KAL. I've already found it useful, as I couldn't for the life of me figure out whether the cable pattern was right and wrong-side rows or what, and I found some useful info here, so thanks! I've only ever managed to knit one garment that fits properly, so it remains to be seen what size this one turns out to be. My tension is so tight I've already gone up to 4 and 5mm needles, instead of 3.5 and 4.5mm. I think it still may be snug. Still, the pattern is very easy (considering I've never knitted cables or bobbles before, or ever used a chart). I found it simple to remember the pattern after the first repeat and it doesn't really need much concentration to get it right, although I can't take my eyes off it when doing bobbles or cables, so no watching TV! Anyway, I'm enjoying this so far.

The yarn is the Cascade 220 recommended. It's one of the heathers shades and I've included a real close-up of the colours - aren't they lovely? Varied but subtle. And the texture of the yarn is fabulous.


Okay, it just remains to be seen whether I can manage to get the sleeves at the right stage and make it fit properly and then there's all the picking-up-stitches in a tidy manner! But one step at a time.

CABLE CHART
For anyone else attempting this and confused about the cable chart, it shows right and wrong-side rows, beginning with a right-side row (row 17). On all the right-side rows the plain squares on the chart are knitted and on the wrong-side rows all the stitches are purled, right across the chart and the whole length of the row. It doesn't matter which way you read the chart, left to right or vice-versa, as long as you are consistent on the actual cable row. I started the chart from the bottom.