Frosted Rose Cardigan

After I finished the Honey Wheat pullover I cast on this cardigan, and ripped and cast on and ripped and cast on several more times until I finally got it right.  The instructions call for slipping the first and last stitches of the wrong side rows, but they did not specify whether the yarn should be in the front or the back.  I also had to figure out how I wanted to distinguish between the right and wrong sides.  Ordinarily this really wouldn't have perplexed me so thoroughly, but by Christmas evening I was so tired and my brain was so fried I'm amazed that I could even remember how to cast on and count (at the same time).  Between sleeping in a strange bed (the hotel) and visiting all day with family my introvert light was flashing like crazy.  I was done.  I may play an extrovert at work, but I am a hard core introvert and need my quiet time.  The only thing that gets me through these visits is my knitting.  I can handle anything as long as I have my knitting.

Fortunately by Wednesday morning my brain was functioning a bit better, mostly because I knew we were heading home, so I cast on one more time and figured out that I needed to slip with the yarn in front, and that I could use different colors of stitch markers to clue me into which side I was working.  Soon we were on the road and I settled in for hours of knitting.  I hadn't bothered with a swatch for this project as I had recently finished another project using this yarn and had a good idea of my gauge, but when I finished the collar and started on the body I felt the fabric loosening up and knew that my gauge was off.  When I thought about it, it made sense as I was knitting back and forth and the other project had been done in the round, and I always knit a little tighter when I knit in the round.  Fortunately I was knitting with my Addi clicks, so I simply switched out my needles for a set one size smaller and continued on my merry way.

Pattern:  Vodka Lemonade by Thea Colman (Baby Cocktails)
Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Serenity DK in Frosted Rose
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)