Key of Karaoke

Breaking Wendy's cardinal rule, I now have three projects on the needles: one that's portable (see sock), one that's a gift for a certain someone I knit with, and now the beginnings of my Karaoke York sweater.

This is the beginnings of the back, using a tubular cast-on; I have now learned to use smaller yarn for my provisional cast-on. (I'm hoping those looser stiches in the cast-on aren't too obvious -- I know they'll be less so after I wash it.) I had to tweak the numbers a bit (nothing major), as I liked the fabric I got when I was knitting a bit under gauge, as the Karaoke has some thin spots in it. Still, it's currently my favorite yarn.

Krista just lent me Knitting in Plain English. I started glancing through it and found the critique of oddly-posed knitwear models in chapter 1. I read along, enjoying it greatly, as I look carefully for these things in all clothing advertisements. I check the Noro Knits in front of me for these sins; it has surprisingly few, and I'm pretty sure most of those are for visual variety. Then I reach this sentence: "Set-in sleeves, particularly in a horizontally striped garment, lose a great deal aesthetically." The York pattern is certainly `guilty' of this, but I don't particularly mind the effect in a garment that resembles a jacket. Well, after this I certainly can't complain that I wasn't warned! Still, if Mermaid uses set-in sleeves, I have to think that they can't be that bad, especially for those of us with narrow shoulders, or that I've confused these shoulders with some other type.