All Ribbing Aside...

Back in mid-April, I had a few hours between things, I think I was hanging around waiting for the proof copy of No 49 to come in from the printers and decided to use the time to try out an idea. I had seen a girl at the bank wearing a wide rib sweater that was cute. Hers was a chunky knit and it was the collar that interested me. It was a wide rib also, that circled her neck and was buttoned with a large button in front. I often get vague ideas like that, mull them over for a bit and it develops into something to make. I did up a couple of swatches of various ribs, on the standard gauge machine, in a discontinued yarn, Forsell’s Thistledown Silk, even using a colour (pale blue) I didn’t particularly love. I chose the yarn knowing it would steam out fairly flat and it stay that way - I’m not such a masochist that I really wanted a stretchy, clingy ribbed sweater! So, short story, I ended up with a really cute raglan A-line cardy and since I was teaching a class on facings, threw it into my suitcase when doing my Spring seminars and called it my prototype - they loved it!
Back home and settled into knitting for No 50, I had to re-do the 3X3 rib. Having experimented with the facings, one method worked much better than the other and it needed to be made in a current yarn. I chose Yeoman’s Twister in the red/black colourway - actually, there were a couple of cones on the shelf just waiting to be picked. I’ve used this yarn in a couple of double bed garments and found it to be very nice to work with and although soft, doesn’t seem to have much stretch too it, which was one of the properties I was looking for. Twister also has great yardage, 1 cone will do it, with plenty leftover, but I always like to have 2 of one dyelot of anything, just to be on the safe side. It was a very quick knit, with great raglan seams, an excellent teaching project.
I wanted to really check out my pattern and instructions so I asked Cindy from ABQ if she’d be willing to test knit it for me. She likes to learn new things and accepted the challenge. We emailed back and forth a bit, but between the accompanying article and the pattern, other than re-checking numbers - the pattern had not been to my proofreader’s yet - she was able to get her garment finished without extra help from me - she loved the fact it was such a quick knit and marvelled that she usually has to re-knit pieces over - she refers to it as the body count and was pleased she was able to get 5 pieces done only once each! She sent a photo of her completed garment just 10 days after starting. I was impressed! She was able to point out a few things from a beginner’s standpoint that needed more instruction, so we were both happy!.
Along with her photo, Cindy wrote: ‘The way the ribs decrease together at the raglans is really a thing of beauty, Mary Anne. It really fits well too; I guess I need to do the loop and button to finish it up? Thank you for letting me knit this; mostly I had fun and now feel like me and the ribber are friends, after all!’
So, just to give you the head’s up on what’s coming, it’s ‘Just Ribbing’! in No 50 - told you it was a bad hair day...