After 5 years of the yarn waiting in my stash, and almost 4 months from casting-on, Rouge is finished.
I had been joking that I was the last blogger to cast-on Rogue, but of course that’s not really true. This pattern continues to be extremely popular and no wonder. A really impressive piece, from design to amazing cable work that has such clever in-pattern shaping and all written out in adept detail. And again, I’m hardly the first person to say all this. As for my personal Rogue, yup totally thrilled. There’s always that moment of truth when you bind-off and try it on for the first time. It’s a great day when it all pays off.
The yarn is Bartlettyarns Fisherman 2-Ply (Garnet Heather) which really is an excellent yarn for this and has been used many times. However I did have to go down to a size 6 to get somewhat close in gauge. As it worked out, I was still running a bit big so I knit the smallest size to end up with a final measurement of 38″. This worked out perfectly as I wanted this fitted, but loose enough to wear layers under it comfortably.
I had also commented that I started this at the end of summer with the hopes of being done while it was still cold enough to wear it and thankfully I’ve succeeded. Sometimes I feel like such a slow knitter, although to be fair, I forgot how much more knitting goes into a hooded garment (especially this hood). And I did learn a new craft in that same timeframe which offered lots of fun distraction.
Pattern: Rogue by Jenna Wilson
Yarn: Bartlettyarns Fisherman 2-Ply (Garnet Heather), 7 skeins (about 3/4 of last skein left over)
Needles: US size 6 (4 mm) and US size 5 (3.75mm) for hem facing
Mods: Didn’t do the hem facing stitch, just decreased sts by 5%, increasing 2 rows before turning row. Overall gauge was bigger so knit smallest size to produce a Medium (38″). Added 4 extra repeats of center cable section of the body to lengthen it. I also used this handy chart to graft the hood together in pattern.
To see all posts on Rouge, it’s work in progres as well as trails and tribulations, go here.
The machine does have it’s limits (rather a lot actually). The weighted “hem” at the end needs to stay off the floor so as it gets longer I roll it up and secure with big hair clips. I can’t knit in the round, so I will be seaming the scarf, although that’s not a bad trade-off at all for this. You can do ribbing, lace, cables, colorwork, etc. but they all require hand manipulation of the stitches. Some to such a degree I think I would just knit a ribbed band by hand for example.
