DesigKnit

Which, unfortunately, is not destined to remain sleeveless.

Unless, of course, sleeveless striped raglans are suddenly in style.

I’ve been procrastinating on casting off the body stitches because I wanted to teach myself the tubular cast-off and hadn’t gotten my act together, but I finally sat down last night and just did it. I really, really like how invisible it is, and how stretchy. This may become my new go-to cast off (at least until it is replaced by the next shiny one that I see). I like grafting, and the bind-off was really an easy pattern to follow once I got the hang of it. I’ll save photos of the edge for when there is actually light. I have no excuse for needing to take a flash picture on the livingroom floor…it was a beautiful day today and there were any number of more attractive photos that I could have taken. But I didn’t. So the pretty shots will have to wait, I’m afraid.

I’ve started the first sleeve, and it is moving along quickly (I’m knitting it separately, so there’s nothing to see in the photo above). I’ll have to see how the sweater looks on a body to decide if I’ve really converted to a stripe-liker or not. I really like them in small chunks, but as an overall pattern I’m not too sure yet. I was a little nervous doing a raglan-style with the stripes, too; it seems like they might make for small-looking shoulders. In this photo, it looks a little bulgy and misshapen, but I’m pretty sure it will block nicely. And some sleeves might help to balance it out, I suppose…

So at this point, I very much like the yarn, and the stripes are keeping it interesting to knit, but I’m not too sure overall of how I’m going to like the final product. The fun of experimenting lies in always pushing boundaries, though, so I remain hopeful that it might turn into something I really like, rather than just something I’m ok with.  (At least I know that the recipient will be ok with just about anything I give him, considering the evidence of sweaters past…)