Casting On!

I appear to be on a sweater kick. Okay, who am I kidding? I've been on a sweater kick for some time now. Some say, maybe addicted to sweaters. Because ten minutes after attaching the last button to the previous cardigan, I was starting to swatch for the next sweater. (How sad is that I haven't even finished weaving in the ends of the previous sweater?)

DH even took immediate note of it, asking "Is that a different color yarn? Are you knitting a new sweater?!?"

What can I say? I'm addicted to having sweaters. They are warm, fuzzy, and even in the warmer weather, it's good to have in our office (where they turn up the A/C to icy cold!)

And I'm really liking vest-type sweaters as they work nicely as layers. So, now I am working on the Adam's Ribs Hoodie by Carol Sunday. I saw this on Ravelry and fell in love with it. I love the tunic length and the wavy lines. Plus, I'm fond of hoods even if I never use them.

The recommended yarn was out of Carol's own line, but I wanted to start it immediately (as I knew I would be soon finished with the Raspberry Cardigan). So, I took a look at a bunch of different yarns on Ravelry trying to find something that would match in both yarn weight and about the same yarn grist. (Using my SpinU lessons for this!)

Eventually, it came down to a few yarns, and luckily, my LYS was having a sale on one of them (Dreams in Color Classy) but they didn't have enough for a sweater and I was unsure about how the varigation in the color would work in the ribbing. After consulting with the owners and a few knitters that was there, it was determined that the Cascade Eco Cloud would be one of two alternatives that would work best (the other being Frog Tree Meriboo). Consequently, I went with the Cascade Eco Cloud (in a beige-ish/coffee with milk color) because I loved working with it and I was familiar with its characteristics.

I swatched using US 6 needles, which after washing and blocking, came out at gauge -- 24 stitches/4 inches (in the ribbing).

So far, so good. The ribbing pattern is actually pretty easily memorized; it took me about half the swatch to get it ingrained in my head. I also tried a few different types of increases, because I didn't like the hole the suggested increase left in the fabric.

Currently, I am about 2" into the body of the sweater. The ribbing pattern is engaging enough to make me pay attention, but mindless enough to not have to pay "too" close attention to it.