Ingrid Cardigan, part 2

So, the most challenging part of working a top down set in sleeve cardigan is, of course, incorporating all of the cables and shaping as you are knitting it. I find I must have an image in my mind of what I want it to look like when finished, and work towards that. It is naturally easier to knit from the bottom up, as you have all of the main cables established, and the shaping for armholes and sleeves and such occurs by decreasing mainly, so you don't have as much to keep track of. Of the other hand, you don't get the fun of watching things emerge from nowhere either, so there is that. Also the piece can be tried on as you go, so adjustments for length and proportion can be done on the fly.

So, here I was last night, having divided for sleeves and knitting merrily along. I am liking how it is coming out, but decided I needed to add a rope cable at the armhole edge of the fronts and backs. This meant doing a bit of surgery, by unknitting the 6 sts at the edges of the armholes and reknitting them as 4 knits of cable and 2 purls. Doing this 4 times took a couple of hours, but I was very pleased with how that came out. Writing that into the pattern ensued. Now the pattern is probably complete, and most of the details worked out except for sizing. I'm going to wait on that until I finish knitting this one, in case of surprises.

Here is another view of the front:

And here are two more views after a bunch of more knitting:

And the front:

I'm really liking how this is coming out, fortunately!

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