The pleasures of a back porch

I'm at my parents' house in Jersey, blogging from the back porch. It's very nice out here, listening to the neighbor's water feature and thanking the heavens that the kids on the block aren't back from summer camp yet.

Another good thing about coming back home is that I have time to work on my mother's Traveling Cables Cardigan. It's a Karabella pattern for Aurora 8, and whoever wrote it had a wonderful idea for an interestingly constructed, elegant pattern. Whoever checked it for technical errors decided that they were overworked, and put their pet bunny in charge of this particular pattern. Every "K" and "P" in the intricate, row-by-row pattern is reversed. It is ridiculous. There is always the possibility that I am reading the pattern completely backwards, but at this late date (I'm working on getting the final piece done) if everything is completely backwards then it'll all fit together anyhow. I just really want to know what, if anything, they were thinking!

I started making my mom this cardigan a while ago. It fell by the wayside because it was too complicated for the school year. I made a lot of socks during fall semester. Fast, easy, and a lot of attention from everyone else in the classroom. But now, coming back to it, I realize how much I missed cables, and Aurora 8 in dusty rose, and knowing that in a few days, my mom will have a new sweater that is all my own work. I don't usually do that well, knitting for others. A scarf is about the best I can accomplish. Anything else and I start feeling very unhappy, as if the knitting is work, not enjoyment. I like knitting for myself and then giving the item away. I did that with my Jaywalkers. They ended up being too small and tight for me, so to my roommate they did go. She loves them. But this is for my mother, and so far, even with the hiatus, it has done nothing but make me happy. Once I have reversed all the "K"s and "P"s, of course.

Back to the knitting!