EPS Begins

 

As planned, I cast on for my Elizabeth Zimmermann EPS Cardigan yesterday at SnB. Several of the grrls are starting an EPS sweater for 2008. I’m planning to do the Circular Yoke Pullover, but make it into a cardigan. Steeks – eek!

I’m using Patons Classic Wool because I had a bunch of skeins in burgundy that I bought with a gift card. I’ll be doing a fair isle yoke in black, white, and two grays. I’m currently planning on also adding a bit of duplicate stitch in gold, but I’ll make the final decision on that when I get there. Below you can see the swatches with and without the gold.

For the steek, I decided to do 7 stitches. I did some test swatches using 5 stitches, and decided that was cutting it a bit too close for comfort. First I tried doing a steek in all purls, since I’d read somewhere that it would help the fabric curl back on itself after cutting. And it did. But I gave up that idea after deciding that I’m going to crochet the steeks for neatness – since that’s done with the knit stitches facing, I’d be doing the crochets on the wrong side, and would have floats in the way in the Fair Isle section. It wasn’t fun. So instead I’m just doing the first and last of the steek stitches in purl (p1, k5, p1). Not only will that give me a nice fold line for the steek, but it also gives me a clear ridge between the steek stitches and the body stitches, to make it easier when picking up stitches for the button band. That’s my theory, anyway. I tried a swatch and liked it.

However, from what I’ve read, I can’t really count on the crocheted steeks to hold this relatively smooth worsted weight yarn in place, so I’ll be sewing it too. I did some swatches of that, but they weren’t too great. Between the heavy yarn, my crappy old sewing machine, and my rudimentary sewing skills, the machine stitching really stretched out the yarn. Either I’ll need to learn how to do that better, or I’ll be hand sewing.

I did 2 1/4″ of 2 x 2 ribbing, and I have about 3/4 inch of stockinette done. I was planning to do a fitted cardigan and shape for the waist, but I keep waffling on that. I guess I’ll just knit a little more and see how it goes. One thing that’s nice – the steek area is probably pretty close to the size of the button band I’m planning, so trying it on should still give me a pretty good idea of how it will fit.

So here it is, January 2 and I’m feeling pretty human again after my New Year’s Eve partying. (Boy, we had a good time!) Yesterday wasn’t too bad, but I was certainly feeling a little sluggish. Maybe this year I should resolve not to drink any more. I could probably manage that. No trouble at all. Just don’t ask me to resolve to drink any less. That I can’t promise. Especially if I’m confronted with something as yummy as Kim’s delicious eggnog. Hmmm. I think I still have plenty of eggs, cream, and milk in the fridge…