Rogue update

About 2 years ago, dear Tech Support Gal wanted a sweater. And the one she ended up choosing was Rogue, from The Girl from Auntie . We ordered several different wool yarns in a couple of colorways and after much mulling and hemming and hawing, chose a purple heathered superwash wool from Brown Sheep Co. in Plum Crazy. Then began the swatching phase. 4 swatches and washing and blocking of these swatches later, the proper size needles for flat and circular knitting and hems and such was all worked out. Then Josie decided she needed to become part of the family, so I put Rogue on the back-burner. After all, I saw no reason to knit Rogue for Techie while she went around in maternity clothes and by the time she'd be out of them, it would be too hot for Rogue. Plus Josie needed her own little baby outfits.

Fast forward to this past March. I pulled out all the materials and cast on Rogue. Techie chose the biased hem option and I worked steadily through it and all the cabling and the hoodie on the front and up to the middle of the hood. It hit the first of July. And the temperatures soared above 100F. Even with the a/c on, I could no longer continue with this lapful of wool. This will be one nice, warm sweater, let me vouch for that.

The weather has finally broken, though we contine in drought (rain, please, if anyone would like to wish their's our way, we'd sure appreciate it. Let's put it this way: we haven't done a full mow job on the lawn since July.) So I've picked Rogue back up and it's back in the rotation. The love for it is still there.

Here's a "Dementor" type shot of the hood. Love that all around cabling. But kitchenering those 38 stitches on the border band let my eyes twitching, hands trembling, and courage ebbing. My own fault for doing it at 11 pm at night. I actually like the kitchener grafting and use it alot but it's not something you should do with a lot of stitches without being well-rested and having good light. And no potential interruptions. Ay yi yi.

Here's a close up shot of the left side and hood edge. I love the way the cabling shows when it's worn and helps make this curve so nicely to fit a woman. And the hood edge does itself while you knit it. Neat trick.

The current state of Rogue. Lacking sleeves. And needing hemming and blocking. But giving a good idea of how gorgeous a design it is. This is my first cable project and I was able to navigate all through it with no problem. The Girl from Auntie is one genius designer in my book and I'm looking forward to tackling more of her designs. I give her 5 stars and do hope I've properly linked you to her site, not stolen bandwidth, and properly credited all these images.

I will admit to having not yet cast on the sleeves. This I blame on Techie, who got me hooked on a series of truly trashy vampire-related novels that honestly have no redeemable literary value other than they're fun to read. I just got the newest one and am only taking a break from it because my eyesight has blurred from having my nose stuck in it for the past few hours. I promise it will soon be on it's way to Maryland for Techie to get her next fix, too, since she let me borrow her's for the first few installments, it's only fair I spring for the next few.

This has allowed me to get over part of the grief caused by making some really lousy choices in the college football pool this week (good grief, whatever happened to thoe highly rated teams? West VA, you let me down bad. Oregon, I can't believe you failed me. I never give my heart to West Coast teams and this was the first time I let my guard down and look what happens. Quacked. Totally quacked.) This is made worse by the fact that my SIL decided to throw logic to the wind (which he NEVER does) and just made random picks, thus beating the 3 of us badly. I will just have to console myself by frequently repeating "The Red Sox won the division. The Red Sox won the division."

Our twin deer visited this evening. Back in the spring, we were delighted when a doe kept showing up in the evenings with twin fawns. They've visited more or less regularly throughout the summer but the doe has gone missing the past few weeks. The fawns are now all grown up and both does themselves. They still hang together and come browse in the open area between our woods late in the afternoon. I wish I could get a photo of them calmly grazing while Nuisance, our black lab, lays snoozing on the bank, completely oblivious. I hope they manage to survive hunting season and the winter and bring their own babies to visit next spring. The chances of this will be increased depending on whether or not Techie brings her hubby with her for the holidays, since they view them as supper on the hoof. Gaaa. Everytime I mention them, Techie starts spouting venison recipes. Shudder. Eat the Maryland deer but leave the twins alone, okay?

I leave this installment with a pic of one of my last roses of the year:

Not just because it's pretty but because I'm trying to improve those photography skills. I had to stand in a raised bed on one foot, pull thorny branches back with one hand, and properly focus all at the same time to get this shot. The only Photoshopping done to it was some cropping. So I rather like it.

Back to the trashy novel now. The sooner I finish it, the sooner I can start those sleeves, after all.