Speed Sweater

I mentioned in my last post that I'd cast on an Antler Cardigan for Rainbow. Although I took last night off from knitting to work on finishing up a spinning project, I'll be getting back to the sweater knitting tonight. I've only spent a couple of (brief) evenings working on it, and I'm about two or three rounds away from finishing the first sleeve.

Rainbow selected this yarn, and while it wouldn't be my first choice (I'd have opted for a solid or, preferably, a classic cream color), it is knitting up in an interesting way. The flashes of purple kind of look like tiger striping to me, and I don't think they're going to interfere too much with the cable pattern at the yoke.

This sweater is reminding me how fast it can be to knit a sweater for a small person. I guess I'm so used to working at small gauges that I forgot how speedy worsted knits up. Admittedly, I didn't swatch for this sweater, but that's only because I know that I can reliably get 18 stitches over four inches with Cascade 220 and a size 7 needle. This yarn is also superwash, so in a way I'm counting on it to come out a little big. I'm knitting the 4-6 size and hoping that Rainbow will be able to wear it for more than one season. She has already requested that I knit her another sweater after this one is done, so I guess there will be a bit of a rush to make sure everything is finished while it's still winter -- though, to be honest, considering how cold it's been already, I probably don't have to worry too much.