Project Report 26.22: Stripey Sweater and Some Swatches

I was fairly single minded in my knitting this week. Almost all of my time was poured into the Untimely cardigan.

I've made a fair bit of progress on the body, plus I took a detour to work on the first sleeve, mostly to make sure I was reserving enough yarn from each section of the color gradient.

I currently have about nine inches of body under the arms, which will shrink to 8 inches after washing, and I've already reached the blue-and-black portion of the gradient skein. This gives me three options.

Option #1: Keep going and let the skein run all the way through to black, thus making this a purple-to-black fade rather than a purple-to-navy fade.

Option #2: Keep going and start the gray bottom border when I run out of blue, making the trim thicker. Not sure whether this could make me look disproportionate.

Option #3: Frog the whole damn thing and start again, incorporating some of the pink and white portions of the skein that I initially cut off, thus creating a pink-to-navy fade.

To be truthful, I think I would prefer the final results of Option #3. It feels like admitting defeat to frog a sweater that's 70% finished, especially since that's what happened with my Sonate Sweater back in April, and since my Notable Tee is still staring at me with its squiggly boob lines.

To avoid making a decision, I decided to start playing with the Lana Grossa Diversa I recently ordered.

The needle size recommended on the label was US 4/3.5mm, so that's where I started. Within a few rows, I decided it was way too loose a gauge for me, so I ripped out and sized down.

I got tidier results on US 3/3.25mm needles, but I still wasn't loving the skyp stitch columns.

My third swatch is the most promising yet. Still working with the US 3s, but this time I tried some proper cables. 

I've decided I prefer the 1-over-2 cables at the top of the swatch to the 1-over-1 cables at the bottom of the swatch, but I'm still not convinced this is for sure the stitch pattern I want to work with.

I think this yarn really wants to be lace. Sadly, I don't see myself making a lace garment anytime soon. Even the ones I admired when compiling my springtime free pattern roundup feel too feminine for me to wear in my daily life. Actually, now that I think about it, it would be excellent for a Sari Nordlund design.

The only other project active on my needles right now is my current pair of doctor's office socks. They've grown a bit this week, but nothing terribly exciting to show yet.

What would you do if these were your projects? Would you frog the cardigan? Let the Diversa live out its lacy dreams? I'd love to hear your thoughts!