The Beauty of Cables

Maybe I should have titled this post 'The Beauty of Ysolda' because I just finished my ninth pattern by this designer, the Gretel hat. This pattern has been on my to-knit list for a long time and it lived up to all of my expectations for how great it would be. I love this hat so much that it is going to be hard to give it to the friend I made it for.


Knitting Gretel has done nothing to cure me of my Ysolda Fever. Besides designing such beautiful knitwear, Ysolda's abilities shine in all of the little details. Take the increases and decreases on this hat, for example. The pattern has you increase two stitches over two rows to the left of the each knit ridge of the hat band, making it look as if the cable section starts organically.


The decreases on the crown are just as seamless. You decrease two stitches over two rows so that your stitches miraculously disappear into the cable motif. I'm going to have to remember these two tricks for future cablework.


So now I'm down to only 11 Ysolda patterns on my to-knit list, which does not include knitting a second Gretel for myself. I keep thinking that I should be making more items of my own design, but that's probably too ambitious of a plan until I finish my PhD. So in the meantime, I'll be happy working my way through those 11 patterns.