Back in the Saddle Again

Nancy knit furiously on the sleeves of her Vivian sweater for 2 days to get to the part where the sleeves join the body and the yoke begins. That's the part she wanted me for. The sweater is knit in one piece up to the joining of the sleeves. I always like that type of construction. The cable design in this sweater is really spectacular. The pattern is designed by Ysolda Teague from twist collective Winter 2008. Nancy is knitting it with Berroco Inca Gold.

Oddly enough, I have a sweaters worth of this same yarn in this same color. I'm debating making the Vivian sweater. I'm not a fan of cables the way Nancy is. This sweater took her 2 months, it would probably take me a year. I don't do charts when there are any distractions involved, so the window of knitting opportunity would be limited to early in the morning with lots of coffee. However, the thought of copying her (old sibling habits die hard) is tempting and I love the way the cables are worked into the shaping. You think she would wear her sweater at the same time and we could be twins???By Sunday she was ready. We made our apologies to our parents for disappearing for a while and spread out all the charts and comments in another room. There is a Vivian support group (I mean forum) on Ravelry and Nancy had printed 3 pages of comments pertaining to this section of the pattern.
Conceptually this knitting on of the sleeves was confusing for Nancy, only because she hadn't seen it before. This is exactly how you attach the sleeves for the Wallaby. Once the sleeves were on, you needed to place some strategic markers for the shaping. Again, Wallaby training came in handy. All the comments and the designer's notes helped tremendously and it wasn't the ordeal I think Nancy thought it would be. (She was also far more capable than she'll give herself credit for...) The only downside is that it delayed brunch.

Being that we like to set unrealistic goals, she wanted to finish it in time to wear home, THE FOLLOWING DAY. Everywhere Nancy went, Vivian went.
She got successfully through the yoke shaping and into the saddle without incident. By the time we got to the airport, she had finished the saddle and was at the point of starting the hood. Her intention was to omit the hood and work up a regular collar of of some sort. However, Nancy is not the knitting - improvising sort.
We agreed that knitting the hood would be easier and quicker than designing a different collar. The sleeves are a little long (and this was a common comment. If I were to make it, I'd have to improvise and take out a cable twist - the sleeves were a hand's length longer than my hands.

Maybe I'll make it a summer project with a Fall goal (notice I didn't say fall of what year).