{"id":492,"date":"2015-02-03T11:46:05","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T19:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/?p=492"},"modified":"2015-02-03T11:46:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T19:46:05","slug":"decoding-cables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/?p=492","title":{"rendered":"Decoding Cables"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the holidays, I ran across one of the many cold bugs that folks have been passing around for the last month.\u00c2\u00a0 I bravely powered through it only to run into another one.\u00c2\u00a0 And another.\u00c2\u00a0 And another.\u00c2\u00a0 None of them really knocked me over, though each successive sniffle broke down another layer of defense.\u00c2\u00a0 Last weekend, after a really lovely date night out with Husband (some good food, a rock opera, and a few drinks), I finally succumbed to a nasty cold.\u00c2\u00a0 My nose runneth over, to put it mildly, and I resigned myself to spending several pajama days in bed, fortified with cold medication.<\/p>\n

Now a word about the effects of cold medication on my unique bodily system.\u00c2\u00a0 That warning on the side of the package telling parents that some children may react to the medication with hyperactivity?\u00c2\u00a0 That message is for me.\u00c2\u00a0 My 41 year old body reacts as if I were still 6.\u00c2\u00a0 Bouncy is an understatement.\u00c2\u00a0 Zippy may be more appropriate.\u00c2\u00a0 At least for the first few doses.<\/p>\n

Knowing that I would have at least a few days of enhanced energy levels, but that I couldn’t go out into the world, I gave myself a new project.\u00c2\u00a0 I had just finished a cozy sweater and was riding high on that success.\u00c2\u00a0 I felt ready for a new challenge; one that would capitalize on my hyperactivity and solitary confinement.\u00c2\u00a0 A puzzle that needed several hours of concentrated effort to decipher.<\/p>\n

Remember when I told you about my favorite cozy sweater?\u00c2\u00a0 The one that I’ve had for at least 10 years, that is so worn<\/del> well loved that the dye is fading from the wear points?\u00c2\u00a0 The one with the fabulous cables and perfect fit that earn rave reviews each time I wear it?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20141023_145325_clr_trm_sm\"<\/a>Yep, that one.\u00c2\u00a0 My family will recognize it as the sweater I wore in every family photo for several successive holidays.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a classic.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the sweater project I chose to tackle in my medicated state.\u00c2\u00a0 Most sane people would settle in with a stack of good books and a movie or two.\u00c2\u00a0 Not me.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it was the fever?<\/p>\n

I reasoned that I had finally knit enough sweaters of varying construction to tackle the basic shape.\u00c2\u00a0 I reasoned that I had the knitterly experience to figure out the various stitches that make up the overall pattern – there are four stitch patterns in there, ignoring the bobbles (I abhor bobbles).\u00c2\u00a0 I reasoned that my personal library contained enough reference material to help me answer any questions that arose (and if not, there’s always the Internet).\u00c2\u00a0 I reasoned that I would not encounter the perfect storm of focus, time, and solitude again anytime soon.\u00c2\u00a0 I would spend these hours productively.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how it happened.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it was the right project at the right time.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been wanting to do this for years, but I was scared of the complexity and my relative lack of experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Those other designers have been doing this much longer than myself.\u00c2\u00a0 But somehow my designer brain and my technical brain decided to work together on this project.\u00c2\u00a0 I drew on the years of architectural and technical design experience working on projects where I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but was trying it anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t say it is easy – it requires real concentration and the right frame of mind – but it sure is fun!<\/p>\n

I gathered my materials: the original sweater, yarn in the appropriate weight, needles, graph paper, pencil, measuring tape.\u00c2\u00a0 Starting with the easiest stitch pattern to decipher – easy wins are best for building momentum – I sketched out the stitches and knit up a quick swatch.\u00c2\u00a0 Then I moved on to the next easiest stitch pattern, repeating the effort for each one and working toward the most puzzling.\u00c2\u00a0 With each “win” I felt more confident.<\/p>\n

The final puzzle was the intricate looking, but super flexible, ribbed cable.\u00c2\u00a0 This one is magic.\u00c2\u00a0 This one required some real thought and a few passes through the swatch before I could confidently sketch out the stitch pattern in chart form.\u00c2\u00a0 How to maintain the rib pattern during the cable crossing?\u00c2\u00a0 Once I had that figured out, I danced through the house.\u00c2\u00a0 I was on a roll!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20150127_154139_clr_sm\"<\/a>Now I had all of the elements in hand.\u00c2\u00a0 Now for the real brain work.\u00c2\u00a0 The next task was to put those elements together – in the correct stitch count, increasing here, decreasing there – so that the finished item would both resemble my beloved original sweater and fit beautifully.<\/p>\n

Did I stay on task?\u00c2\u00a0 Or did I succumb to medicine head and the lure of a good nap?\u00c2\u00a0 Stay tuned to find out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after the holidays, I ran across one of the many cold bugs that folks have been passing around for the last month.\u00c2\u00a0 I bravely powered through it only to run into another one.\u00c2\u00a0 And another.\u00c2\u00a0 And another.\u00c2\u00a0 None of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[16,44,45,9,46,65,18,13],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-knitting","tag-cozy","tag-creativity","tag-design","tag-knitting-2","tag-sketching","tag-sweater","tag-winter","tag-wool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.tangledstrands.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}