And the winner is . . .

I have (I hope) selected a suitable pattern for my next cardigan from the auditions process.

What name is inside the envelope?

Some of my original selections didn't even make it to the first round. They were all 16 stitches wide, and when I tried laying the samples I had already completed onto my blue Wondrella, I realised that this was going to be too wide.

Out of curiosity, I did try knitting up one of the wider patterns. But after frogging it for the third time I gave up!

Beyond my capabilities, for now

One of the samples I had already knitted is 13 stitches wide. Not only did this seem a bit too much, but the pattern is directional. I'm considering doing the pattern on the sleeves as well as the front, but the sleeves are top-down while the body is bottom-up, so this sample had to go.

Not quite right for this project

This diamond pattern with twisted stitches is pretty, and very easy to knit, but doesn't show up particularly well in this marled yarn - I think that it would work better in a solid colour.

This gets a bit lost

The ukuleles pattern was another one which I had knitted already. It's narrow, and shows up well, but I didn't feel I was knitting the shapes very consistently.

Ukuleles, banjos, lutes - they're all in there

Of the samples I had already knitted, this left the chain links (or, as I always think of it, 'the sausages') as my favourite. But there were still a couple of cable designs left to try.

Chain links, or sausage links?

This one was far too wide, but I liked the central element of narrow and wider twists, and wondered if I could just knit that section.

Definitely got potential

Because I'm new to cable knitting, it took a couple of goes to work out which parts of the chart and instructions I could ignore.

Trying to block out the bits I didn't need

But I got there in the end, and it was worth the effort.

Well hello!

This immediately became my new favourite pattern - sorry, sausages. Not too wide, shows up well, not directional. The only one issue was that I wanted something which was symmetrical across the two fronts, not the same. (At this point, I offer my apologies to any experienced knitters who are reading this and thinking, "Oh for crying out loud, it's simple.". As I say, I'm a knitting novice and cable is a whole new subsection of what is still a fairly new area.)

In the meantime, I did one final sample of basic cables.

Twists in both directions! What witchcraft is this?

These were a bit too basic, but I did make the exciting discovery that the direction of the twist depends upon whether you put the cable needle to the front or the back!!! Groundbreaking*. Armed with this new knowledge, I went back to the instructions for the previous sample and made a couple of changes. And, voila!

At this point, I did take a moment to bask in my triumph

So now, I am knitting a swatch the same size as my original one, mostly in stocking stitch, but with the cable band included. Hopefully it will not affect the gauge, and I can start knitting.


* - I joke about it, but I am really enjoying all of this. I have been sewing for more than 50 years, about 90% of my entire life. So while I may come across a complex pattern or a tricky technique, the opportunities for me to learn something totally new are few and far between. Starting from scratch with a new skill is exhilarating.