It’s springtime! The local cherry trees have once again donned their festive pink blossoms, and the weather has finally warmed up again.

It’s crazy to think that just 3 weeks ago there was still snow on the ground. Right now the skies are clear and blue, and temperatures are hovering in the 60’s. How amazing is it that so many changes can appear in such a short amount of time?

I’m still a knittin’. I’ve been eyeing some Aran sweater patterns and have been experimenting with some more complicated stitches in my quest to become a better knitter.

I’ve tried my hand at the Moss Stitch Diamond Pattern, the Wheat Ear Cable Stitch, and the Honeycomb Cable Stitch, as well as experimenting with 1×1 and 2×2 ribbing stitches. The little blue loop is a stitch marker that I used to keep track of where one pattern started and another ended. I knitted this swatch in cotton just for practice, but traditionally Aran sweaters are knitted in wool.

The Moss Stitch Diamond was difficult for me. There were 22 different rows to knit through before the pattern repeated, so I constantly had to refer back to the directions. I think that I might try knitting another swatch of this cable and try to work out where I went wrong because my swatch looked like a slightly melted version of the original pattern.

The Wheat Ear Cable Stitch was a dream to knit. It looks beautiful (sort of like an ear of wheat waving to and fro in a gentle breeze) and the pattern repeats again after only 4 rows. This meant that I only had to refer to the directions every 3rd row or so because only one row of the 4 actually requires you to do any cable stitches. I can’t wait to knit this on something bigger than a swatch!

The final stitch that I learned was the Honeycomb Cable Stitch. Many Aran sweater designers traditionally use this stitch in the center front panel of their sweaters. This cable stitch looks super complicated and I was intimidated to even try to knit it.

Could I hack it? Would my honeycomb swatch be super messy? Would you even be able to make out the honeycomb pattern at all once I was finished?

As it turns out, this pattern is way simpler to knit than I thought. The pattern repeats after 8 rows, but you barely have to glance at the directions because it’s intuitive where you have to knit your cables. Some you hold in front of your work, and right afterwards you hold the next set of cables behind your knitting. It’s almost like weaving in a way, working your stitches in front of your work and then behind your work.

The variation in the knitting comes from knitting with 3 differently colored yarns. Knitting them all together creates a confetti colored pattern which I really like. It’s like knitting joy into every stitch.

It took a few hours to create 6-8 inches of knitted honeycomb. I felt quite proud when I finished! Learning each new stitch was like accomplishing a mini-goal. At first you don’t know if you’ll be able to coax sticks and string into knitting more complex fabric in an orderly fashion, and then a few hours later you’ve done it!

It’s funny to think that I only started knitting in January of this year. I have yet to make anything more complicated than flat knit socks, but it’s so exciting to think that there are so many more stitches and techniques to discover! It’s like being a knitting explorer!

This must be like how Sally Ride felt when she was blasting off into space for the first time. So many new adventures await!