[FO] Death by Cables - this pattern fought back valiantly, but I emerged victorious! (Lessons Learned &Details included)

There are so many cute things to knit for little girls, but boys are trickier. Especially not-toddler boys. Until one day I finally stumbled on Gaston (LinkRav).

I'm on a Cold Sheep, so this is a cotton-acrylic blend from my stash. Lesson 1: not a great yarn for a boys'sweater. He stretches the sleeves just putting it on. Super comfy on the skin though!

Cables. Oh god the cables. I think I'll be having nightmares about cables. I learned my personal preferred method: I don't like cable needles, I find them to be too grippy, so I use a smaller size interchangeable needle tip. I abhor working the held stitches straight from it though. I also don't care for the no-cable-needle method. So I would slip the stitches on the holding needle tip, work the next two, then slide the held stitches back on my left needle and work them there. And I got pretty darn efficient at it too. Lesson 2: find the methods that work for YOU.

Then the trouble started. The pattern tells you to just fit in cables at the edges as you can with the decreases happening, but I found I wasn't doing it symmetrically. I was able to drop down and painstakingly cable back up, but my tension was WAY off so I ended up ripping back anyway. Then I'd just flat forget to cable on a row section and not notice it for 12 rows. That time I was able to drop down and reknit just a section with tolerable tension. Lesson 3: it's already screwed up, might as well try something tricky to fix it.

At the collar, I trusted the pattern and forged ahead, but it didn't feel right so I tinked back and reworked from the opposite side. That's when I realized that WS and RS were now reversed because the collar folds out, and I'd had it right the first time. Lesson 4: Trust the m**f** pattern! I honestly don't know how many times I'm going to have to learn that lesson.

Overall I'm really thrilled with it-it really pushed the boundaries of my skills at this point while not actually making me cry, and I feel much more confident now!

PS. Oops, that's the pre-end-weaving picture, but I assure you I did!

/r/knitting Thread Link - images4-d.ravelrycache.com