Starsky - It begins ...

You might wonder what this is:

If you guessed that it was a sweater back, done up to the shoulder shaping, you might have been right, except that it is that no longer and instead became the largest swatch I have ever made. The boring twisted rib has been ripped apart, to become a Starsky.

Back when I was in college, I has a Starsky-esque sweater. Not this one, of course, but one similar. Kind of a wrap thingy, with a belt. It was in a patchwork design in all sorts of shades of brown. It was probably hideous by today's fashions, but back then it was tres chic. I remember that it had wide sleeves that dragged in just about everything they could and a belt that I was continually cinching. But I liked it, and I do believe the time has come for another Starsky.

In one evening, the twisted rib metamorphed into: I've altered the rib pattern a bit. I wanted the three-stitch rib dividing the banana plants to flow into the bottom ribbing. As it turned out, I was also able to have the stems flow upwards from a two-stitch rib. I'm happy. For those to whom such things matter, the yarn is Naturally Chunky 14 ply, Shade 557, otherwise known as grey. I've also decided to go with only four inches of ease instead of eight, as this will mostly be an indoor sweater.

Thanks to my FLAK experience, I learned how to cable without a cable needle. These all being two-stitch cables, they flow very nicely sans needle. I'm not 100 per cent sure that I have enough yarn, and if need be I will forgo the belt. I will hold my breath while I do all that ribbing on the fronts. It was a little strange at first doing cable crossings on the wrong side, without the visual clue one gets from the front, but they actually go fairly easily.

I hope to get the "fancy" part done soon, so I can have some plain stockinette to work on while I do my April SMAKs, which involve a bit of patterning. It's rather strange -- now that spring is around the corner, I have two GREY projects on the go. Hmmmm ....