Covered in Cables

I do not have a lot of orange in my wardrobe, but an orange sweater immediately takes me back to high school and reminds me of a friend that was very fond of her pumpkin colored sweater.  I decided that I needed my own hand knit version.

The pattern is a vintage one from the 1970s that I found online.  I love a turtleneck, and the textured cables seemed like an excellent choice to pair with this lovely tweed yarn, aptly named "Pumpkin Pie."

Going through old photos of this project, I am realizing that it is the final knitting project for which I had a bit of help from my wonderful Valentino.  He was not much of a lap dog in his younger years, but he did love to sit with me for the last few years of his life.  So now I have even more of a reason to treasure this sweater.

Most of the sweater patterns that I have come across with turtlenecks come with raglan sleeves.  I wonder why that is?

This project came together easily.  My brain deals well with a knit pattern that keeps everything nice and lined up in a vertical column.

The yarn is from Knit Picks, and it did not give me any grief.

I have also come to realize that I prefer to knit sweaters in pieces rather than in the round.

I wouldn't say that seaming those pieces together is my favorite part of the process (which may be odd considering my affinity for hand sewing) but I certainly don't mind it.

Maybe working in separate pieces reminds me of sewing a garment together which is why it makes more sense to me than making something from top to bottom in the round.  Short rows, for instance, are something that drive me mad, and considering how often they are used to make sweaters in the round, that may be part of the problem.

But however it may have been constructed, it's safe to say that I have added another cozy hand knit turtleneck to the collection.

And I really love the look of the oversized cables.

If I didn't have at least four other in-progress knitting projects, I might even cast on another before Spring weather puts me off knitting with wool.  But I should probably get back to the unfinished items that are already started.  Only time will tell if the temptation of a new project is too much for me to concentrate on one of the other knits projects that could use some attention.