Obsession

A few days ago I found a sweater on a blog. It is an amazing sweater. I love the sweater. I want to knit the sweater. I want to wear the sweater. I love it so much I want to marry it.

The sweater is this orange cabled pullover from Untangling Knots. That cable just entices me. I seriously drooled all over my keyboard in "I Want To Knit That" awe. Unfortunately, the pattern is not available, and probably won't be until next fall. "No problem," I thought to myself, "She mentions the book where I can find the stitch pattern and then I can do the math for myself. I have a few skeins of wool that would love to be that sweater."

So where can I find the cable? Barbara Walker's A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns. It's actually a book that has been on my to-buy list for a while, but right now I just don't have $30 to throw down just to make that inner me pipe down. ("I want the sweater! I need the sweater! I can't have the sweater without the stitch pattern! I NEEED THE BOOOOK!!!")

My solution was to pray I could find the stitch online.
The Walker Treasury Project (they knit swatches and photograph them in color, but do not release actual stitch patterns) informed me that the pattern is called "Lattice Diamond."
A simple search turned up nothing, so I headed to Ravelry, where I hoped I could find it in a free pattern. No luck. I did find some very nice cables, but my stupid heart was set on THAT one.

This sweater has been stuck in my brain since I first saw it. Every spare minute I've been reading amazon reviews for different stitch dictionaries. I went to my local used bookstore, my local Barnes and Noble, and even Tuesday Morning hoping that the stitch would be in one of their dictionaries. Which, of course, it wasn't.

I eventually decided I would have to use Eunny Jang's tutorial to reverse engineer it. I had a few similar patterns to work from: This hourglass stitch, this cable, and I even considered using Evenstar as an alternate.

Then, just as I was texting my friend about my miserable search and how I was going to have to do some crazy brain work with two 2-year-olds in the house, I FOUND IT.
Apparently if you look up "Latticed Diamond" instead of "Lattice Diamond" and it makes a huge difference.
Here it is, that beautiful stitch pattern. 22 stitches, 30 rows.

I want to do the body of the sweater in the round, so first I had to convert the written instructions into a chart. I wasted so much graph paper trying to do this!

I think my brain exploded a little bit.

I had to figure out all the symbols for all the twists and cables, and then I kept putting them in the wrong spots or miscounting. Finally I went online and found a place to make my own graph paper with bigger squares and then I had fewer problems. I also found some white-out, which was incredibly helpful.

The Almost-Finished Chart
(I did one last version but didn't take a picture)

Towards the middle, I was working on it in the living room and rather than looking up an easy chart symbol, I just threw in a happy face.

Yes, they make me smile when it's time to do that part of the chart.

Anyways, I now officially have started my swatch!

Yes I do plan on fixing the direction of the lattice twists when I make the actual garment. The written pattern I have told me to do a purl twist that made no sense at all, so I kind of winged it and will have to...re-wing it.

Much more magic math do be done, but I am so excited I just had to share ^_^
My brain is seriously stuck on this project, and I'm so glad I didn't have to spend $30 on the book before I could begin! (Though I have heard so many good things that I will have to buy it eventually.)

Unfortunately, after my swatch is done I can't start the real thing until I finish a few items. Mainly the entrelac hat and my mom's shawl. Then the obsession can continue ^_^