If at first…

Several years ago, I came across the book No Sheep For You, a book of knitting patterns and techniques for people who don’t like, or can’t wear woolen garments. I really liked the Morrigan pattern. I’m a sucker for cables (not to mention the pattern is named for the Celtic goddess of battle and strife – totally badass).

So I bought a bunch of KnitPicks’ CotLin yarn (it’s a cotton/linen blend), with the intent to knit the Morrigan. It then sat in my stash with the pattern for several years while I worked on other projects.

Last spring/summer, in preparation for my visit to the UK, I decided I needed a new sweater to take with me and finally pulled out the yarn and pattern. I got as far as reading through the pattern and looking over the chart, where I came across the term “no stitch”. No stitch?? What the heck does that mean? So I gave up on the Morrigan before I’d even started it, and found another pattern, the Azami.

I had finished the body, done one sleeve and the hood, when I decided to try it on. It was enormous, and I must have done something wrong on the hood, because that was too small. Very discouraging, so I frogged the entire thing and decided to try yet another pattern. Now I’m working on the Madrigal.

It’s a really interesting pattern. You start at the top of the back, work down to the armhole, and then go back up to your cast-on row (done in invisible cast-on, btw), and work down the two fronts, then join the three sections together at the bottom of the armholes and finish working the body. A nice thing about the technique is that I’ve been able to try it on as I’ve been working on it, and I’ve already made one or two sizing changes based on the fittings along the way.

And I may yet pick up the Morrigan again, because a couple of months after I gave up on it, there was a segment on reading charts on Knitting Daily, in which Eunny Jang specifically mentioned what the whole “no stitch” thing meant! Yay!