I told you I would, so I had to take the plunge. My new circular needles from KnitPicks arrived, and I cast on the Ithilien Brocade Jacket. 348 stitches per round, plus 8 steek stitches. Times about 8 rows per inch. I’m really, really hoping that I got the gauge measured correctly and did all the math right, because I’d hate to have to rip it all out and start over again. I would do it, but I would hate it.

So far, three days into it, I’m almost done with row SEVEN. Here’s how it looks:

First inch of the sweater – almost

Yeah, I know, it looks all ruffly. I’m not especially fond of ruffles, but I know it will get better! The white yarn is the cotton I used for the crocheted provisional cast-on; I’ll pick up those stitches later to knit the hem. It’s supposed to be fingering weight, like the yarn for the sweater, but it seems to be bulkier. Anyhow, the design is starting to become apparent at this stage.

Can you see the design starting to appear?

And I’m on my third color, which really helps! Since I’ll be changing the cool colors (green > blue > purple and back again) every three rows, that should help mark the progress. I can’t really call them ‘the background colors’, because they become the foreground colors on the cable sections, and I’m evidently too literal a thinker to let that one go.

I’m using my favorite dragon stitch markers again, but I think I’ll have to make some smoother ones for this project – the dragons keep grabbing the yarn!

This is definitely a park-it-at-home project, especially since I have four charts to work from. I did get them finished, and so far, they make sense to me. I have had some issues with them, since none of my charting options have really good ways to show cables in a different color than the background. The one-over-two twisted crosses in two colors really seem to be beyond their capabilities. This is not really a problem for me personally, since I already know what I mean, but would be an issue if I ever decided to make this pattern available to others. !! Aside from that, I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out. The stitch symbols on top of the color in some cells really works well for this pattern.

Addendum:

I said this was a ‘home’ project, didn’t I? Yes, there it is, just up there in that paragraph. I lied. I can’t leave it behind after all. Hey, I could have 15 minutes free on a lunch hour and knit a third of a row! I could break down along the highway and have to wait for assistance! (The other project I’m hauling around with me doesn’t count, for some reason.) So the honeymoon is going strong.

The getting-to-know part is purling continental (left-handed) style. Yuck. But I am being forced to get better at it, and I am – very slowly and awkwardly. It reminds me of how awkward new knitters feel sometimes, and that’s a good thing.