I'm knitting a Kors Cabled Turtleneck

When I first bought this yarn, a couple of years ago, the color thrilled me. I gave it a place of honor in a basket in my bedroom, where it sat for so long that I had to dust it. Several times. I swatched for Sonnet, then knit Sonnet in another color of Cotton-ease. Thank goodness for that. Sonnet sits abandoned in a drawer. After the first couple of times I wore it, it grew too wide, as is the nature of sideways-knit sweaters.

Then I swatched for the Leaf Cardigan, a pattern intended for angora. The swatch told me that was a no go. Following the problems I had with the Sonnet and the Latoya patterns (that one was orange, then dyed brown) growing after they were completed, I at least had the sense to swatch on size 7s. It is a better swatch, even if the leaves have a mind of their own and stand out like they were formed of playdoh. I abandoned that project and left the yarn to gather more dust.

Now, in the path of my exposure to gorgeous yarns in subtle shades, this particular green lost its appeal. It became, to me, baby green, too pastel, bland, ewww. I couldn't even stand to look at it in the pretty basket. What to do but knit it up?

Pattern choice confounded me for a long while. I was stymied by the odd gauge of cotton-ease, getting 19 or 17 sts/4", depending on whether I used a size 7 or 8. It is never 18, and it grows tremendously when washed a few times. To say nothing of what dyeing and repeated washing does for it. I want the sweater to last a long while and expect a lot of growth.

Enamoured of the cabled cardigan I was knitting at the time, all I could think of was cables. I drug my first semi-succesful sweater out. It's an odd thing, knit in blue cotton-ease, mostly stockinette with a few cables. (I used a Nicky Epstein pattern.) I found I liked it well enough and that the cables still look good. Encouraged, I shopped cabled patterns all over, in magazines, in books, and mainly on Ravelry. I was struck by Shutter-honey's and Practical Polly's in particular, but her gauge was not a match.

Pondering cables, ruminating cables, reguritating cables, I considered complex patterns and their construction, first those with one major cable, flanked with minor cables, knit/purl patterns or even stockinette, then those with two main cables, one over each shoulder. Which did I want?

Then I found --Michael Kors' cabled turtleneck from the Silver Anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting--I like these cables especially, and I like the very plain center. This is a huge bulky sweater that is knit with two strands of sport-weight yarn. Even the small size would have six inches of ease on me. I've decided to shrink it down to fit.

I carefully calculated gauge on all the different patterns (using all those sweaters and swatches I've knit in cotton-ease). After putting them into a spreadsheet which added them together in the right proportions, I found I could knit the small size. I'm getting an average of 5 spi over the entire back.

After the ribbing I made only one design modification. Rather than deleting a stitch after the ribbing to come up with the correct number, I cast on two fewer stitches (allowing me to start and end my ribbing with knit stitches for easier seaming) and added a stitch in the middle to get the proper stitch count for the pattern. The middle twisted ribbing pattern is the only portion with an odd number of stitches (in the small size). Adding a stitch there makes the cable pattern line up better with the ribbing. At least the two halves are symmetrical.

The back is done. It is going to be a tight fit, with an inch or two of negative ease. I'm counting on it stretching after I wash it. Just in case, I've added a few stitches to the front. I need more room up there anyway.

The funny thing is, now that I see it knit up into this textured pattern, I like the color again.