Are You Ready for Some Football Knitting (Again)?

Do you remember the Scoreboard Knitalong from last year? Maybe you took part in it?

The idea was to knit a scarf or cowl in two colors throughout the football season, with each row representing a point scored either by your team or the opposing team. Nearly 900 people posted projects on Ravelry during last year’s event, and it’s just about time for version 2.0.

This year’s knitalong is starting earlier, August 1, to be able to accommodate people who want to knit the score for their favorite high school football team (wouldn’t that be a cool gift for a guy on the team?).

In order to entice people to sign up this year, Skacel is hosting a giveaway of 13 skeins of HiKoo Simplicity, the yarn of choice for the knitalong. The winner will receive 6 skeins each in their team’s two colors, plus one contrasting color, which can be used to mark where a new game started.

If you’d like a chance to win, send an email that includes your football team name, your name and address to [email protected]. Their newsletter didn’t say when entries close, but the winner will be announced May 30, 2016, so get your emails in before then.

Are you going to take part in Scoreboard 2.0? What team are you knitting for? Or if you did it last year I’d love to hear about that, too.

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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