It has been a long time to “FO Day.” This now-Finished Object was cast on February 27, 2010. It was completed May 12, 2010.  Before being cast on, it was  about 1750 yards of, well, basically very nice string that used to grow on sheep.  It seems like it should be sheeps, and I’m sure it was more than one of those critters who “donated” their fleece to make this sweater, but sheep.  This sweater used to grow on sheep.  Mixing animal references now, this was a bear to knit.  Some knitters can teach their hands to remember intricate patterns.  Not me.  My hands are mostly stupid and need constant guidance from my head.

The pattern is Paton’s Dad’s Cardigan.  It is a free pattern with some unfortunate goofs in it just to keep us knitters on our toes.  Goofs in patterns are cod liver oil for knitters: it’s what makes us strong so usually we swallow hard and just get on with it.   I’ve posted my corrections here on Ravelry and emailed Paton’s hoping I can tempt them to fix the errors in the cabling abbreviations. Forget the errors.  They were momentary distractions.  OK, they were kind of big distractions and then I made my peace with them.   Another knitter has turned string into a garment to keep another brother warm. “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He likes it a lot.  She “chortled in his joy.”

It’s a WIP (“work in progress”) for now.  The weather will be warm before it’s an FO (“finished object”).  There’s been a lot of frogging  so far (“rip it, rip it”).  But I am pleased with this fun, challenging project.  I’m using a free Paton’s pattern published under a name so clumsy it doesn’t attract much attention:  ”Dad’s Cardigan.”  In a way, the clumsy name is refreshing.  Anymore, knitting patterns carry some truly odd names  that tell little about what it is.  ”Dad’s Cardigan” suits me better than “George” or “Humanity” or “Intolerable Cruelty.”  Unfortunately  Paton didn’t proofread this pattern as well as one would hope, but the experienced will figure out the errors before too much damage is done.  I’m posting corrections on my Ravelry project page as I knit along, starting from the simple (that it’s unlikely there are patterns for two different size smalls), to the more troublesome (three of the abbreviations within the cable panels are incorrect).  See Noreen1009  on Rav.

I plan for this being an awesome warm sweater.  But I think my fiddling with sticks and string is no match for this beauty of a table.  Thank you big brother!