proof of concept

i own lots of cheap acrylic yarn. okay, maybe not lots, but more than one color of it. cheap acrylic is ugly, itchy, and unpleasant to work with on anything other than metal needles (and even then, it can be a bit grating depending on the finish on the needles and the tension of the yarn). but i need it. i need it because i can't bring myself to swatch anything experimental on "good" yarn. so i apologize up front for what i'm sure will be many photos of shiny plastic swatches, but that's all they'll ever be. design swatches. and they usually get frogged and reused. i try not to break off anything i swatch on acrylic so i can just wind it back into another ball still connected to the whole ugly skein, but if i have to break it off (usually to test a grafting pattern) it becomes scrap yarn for provisional cast-ons.

i'm rambling. i'm afraid someone will call me out for doing something wrong. oh my god, merc. it's a blog. get over it.

***

before bed last night, i cast on one of the aforementioned acrylic swatches for a scarf design (yes, a scarf. how boring). i started with an i-cord cable, and that did not suit my tastes at all. i tried a flat cable with no borders. after a few rows, i had something that resembled the image i had in my head when i began--an image inspired by the original cover of nicky epstein's "knitting over the edge". i find the original cover much more appealing than the new one.

by the time i put it down, i had about this much of the swatch:



somewhat sad looking, but the same concept as my goal.

the sides, while not exactly attractive, weren't completely flat and ugly (only a little bit):



unfortunately, if this were ever to be reversed, it would lose the entire effect:



something had to be done. but it was late; i was tired... i went to bed.

when i woke up this morning, images of knitting were flying through my head. i'd figured out how i wanted to do it. i'd knit between the two techniques. there would be a front face and a back face, interlaced on the needle. i learned this a couple of years ago as a way to knit circularly on straight needles. you simply slip the back stitches with the yarn in front. if i did this, and cabled both sides at the same time, i could knit a fluffy, borderless cable.

i was so excited to start knitting this other way that i apparently also twisted the cables the other way...

regardless, the result was beautiful. the cables were plump and fluffy. the back looked like the front. the sides weren't so limp. it looked like braided bread.

back:



front:



side:



and with an accompanying cast on and cast off, the concept will have been proven, and i'll be able to start the actual scarf. it'll be in lavender knit picks ambrosia. i'm excited.