Cable Swatches

Cable Swatches
Originally uploaded by Reder Family.

Here are the swatches I've done for the baby blanket I'm working on using the Jaeger Baby Merino yarn I bought recently, which, by the way, works nicely for the cabling. The bottom swatch is the "wild oats" stitch pattern. The top left is "plaited cable" and the top right is my (screwed up but we'll call it special design) elongated "sand tracks". If you want to know what sand tracks should look like, imagine these having removed a few rows between each repeat. Oh well, I actually like this one. It's got an almost random look about it that's not bad. I really like the other two, though. I think you could do a really cute baby jacket in those wild oats, and I'm sure I've seen the plaited cable on a sweater sleeve somewhere recently.

So, my original plan was to make a bunch of swatches and then sew them together. Then, good ole smarter-than-me hubbie made the suggestion of just knitting all the designs I want in one single piece. That's more confusing, for sure, because you're changing stitch patterns within a row. Not so great for memorizing the pattern, but I started thinking about all the "fun" I'd have sewing and weaving in the ends, and I'm starting to see his logic. So, that got me thinking about making an actually plan of attack for making this blanket. I'm looking at these swatches, so nicely pinned into to place (notice the colorful pin heads my daughter called little lights), and I'm trying to come up with a pattern I would like. For now, all I've come up with is something with the wild oats as a boarder and the plaited cable doodads in the middle some where. I'm really starting to like this cabling thing, though, so I'm thinking I may even go for something more complicated like one of the patterns I saw on Girl From Auntie. That would be pretty.

Hmmm. More contemplating is definitely in order.