The clouds have finally lifted, and my pain is much better now.  One morning this week, I woke up and got out of bed and I actually almost felt normal.  It was such a huge change from the past six months that a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I felt like I could really smile again with all of me in it, if that makes sense.  I’ve smiled in the past six months, but there was some part of me that was in excruciating pain, so I couldn’t entirely smile.  Now I think I can, at least, in the morning.

Anyway, that’s not why you’re here!  You want to see those pictures of Sicily I promised!  R took them on Sunday!  I’ve been lazy about posting I guess. I posted them on Ravelry, as I’m sure some of you noticed.

Sicily

This cabled sweater has a unique construction, similar to Corsica. First the Cable Band in the middle of the sweater is knit back and forth horizontally and grafted together at the side. Then, stitches are picked up along one side of the cable band and stockinette stitch is knit in the round downward with increases on either side for the hips. The lower body is finished off with a hem. After that, stitches are picked up along the other side of the cable band and knit in stockinette stitch in the round upward, with bust dart increases, until the armpits. The fluttery romantic 3/4-length sleeves are knit in the round next, with a complementary cable. They are also hemmed. The sleeves are then joined to the body, and the top of the sweater is knit in the round with raglan decreases and a scoop neck. The sweater is finished off with a reverse stockinette stitch border. Sicily is made to fit tightly with minimal ease.

SIZE
30 (34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 54) (Shown in Size 34)

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS
Chest: 30 (34, 38, 42, 46, 50, 54) inches
Length: 20 (20.5, 21, 21.5, 22, 22.5, 23) inches

GAUGE
23 sts/36 rows = 4” in stockinette stitch

I’ve been working on my nephew’s birthday present. It’s going to be late… He’s turning 1 on Friday. That’s right, he was born on Halloween!  I’m definitely going to finish his present today, but since I don’t think I can mail it until tomorrow since I can’t walk to the post office at this point and R took the car today.

Speaking of birthdays, I have two other recently gifted birthday presents that I can now show you, so I’ll have to do that sometime soon!

I really love this design. I think I already said this, but this is my favorite of the projects I’ve designed so far. I should have time to finish the pattern sometime next week. It won’t take much more work, but I’m trying to get this birthday gift done as well as a few design submissions done in the next week.

The sleeve cable band cable was the hardest part to design, because I wanted you to be able to knit it vertically while having it match the horizontal underbust cable.  The yarn I chose, Jaeger Roma,  is really soft and smooth, but it shows every little bump and join, so I might recommend finding a different soft DK wool/silk (like Zephyr Wool-Silk) or a nice soft DK wool to knit this up in.  There are more photos of Sicily on flickr here.

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