The verdict:

LOVE the yarn, so cuddly soft. Very happy despite the mistake :)))

The target:

yeah, I had this idea with big bold cables and this beautiful yarn… I want quite a bit of positive ease (20cm-ish) and really long sleeves :)

The yarn:

the yarn is cashmere/yak 50/50, comparable to Debbie Bliss Lhasa as well in its structure. that is a bit of a bitch, one ply knitted into an I-cord. You break that one ply, the yarn breaks - will see how delicate it is wearing it as a jumper…

The unexpected:

I thought the ribbing would hold better due to the yak content, but - no. Not that I mind, the ribbing is a nice finish without the pulling sideways in so I can wear long blouses/shirts underneath :)

The ARGGGHHHH:

The front panel has a mistake :( I only realized it after the body was all done. I leave it as it is though. Short of frogging nearly all (bottom-up knitted, sleeve sts picked up) or cutting the piece above the mistake off, unravel the mistake, reknit that and grafting it back on there is no way. From the 600g yarn are only a few meters left… not going to cut or unravel anything!

I expected the 600g would go a little further wanting to knit a big turtle neck imitating cowl. I am not finished yet and may still get one but definitely not as big as I had imagined.

had first a different idea, but frogged that bit and re-started:

structure:

• Body: 224 sts for 2x2 ribbing, 4mm +6 sts for each cable, 5.5mm

knitted in the round, parted for arms

• Short rows for shoulder sloping neckline - life sts for ribbing at neck and the band (7sts) I knitted in to close the shoulders.

• Shoulder slopes (43 sts per shoulder) and neckline (80 sts neck opening: +3 each side at the top of the neckline front): 2 rds 5mm, 8 rds 3.5mm, last round and BO 4mm ---> without the ribbing the neckline was pretty deep, used small needles to tighten it up. But the BO if 3.5mm was really tight over the head, so I opened it again, knit 1 round more with 4mm and used this needle for BO as well. It made such a difference

• Sleeves knitted as a tube with DPNS (5.5mm) same as the body: 67 sts, slight slope to fit the angle of shoulders, last short row (when knitting in the round again) is a mess because one comes from the ‘wrong’ side. The SR loop is not tightening the last st when pulling out as that sts is already tight as one comes from the ‘wrong’ direction… Decrease 1 sts every 4th row until 42 sts, start 2x2 ribbing decreasing 2 more to 40sts, 16 rds more, then ribbing, 4.5mm because I couldn’t find my 4mm DPNS - well, doesn’t really matter ;) - Added 13 rows more, basically all the yarn that was left after the turtleneck cowl :)

• Didn’t want to use the Cashyak for sewing the sleeves in as it is somewhat delicate and I didn’t want the friction of always pulling the yarn through. Used some lambswool in nearly the same colour (4 ply cable, opened the 2x2 ply and used that)

• BO for ribbings sleeve/neck: decrease BO in pattern