Sea Tangles—Tangled Nerves

I'm knitting something more complicated than a baby hat, and it's all my daughter's fault. My daughter, Katie, is an excellent knitter. You can see her work at www.ravelry.com (screen name: kmartins). It was at the ravelry site that she found a fascinating garment, something sort of like a sweater knitted with unique yarn, and she emailed the link to me with a note saying "You have to make this!!!"

What she found was Sea Tangles, a pattern designed by Kie Zuraw that uses a thread-sized yarn knitted with US 6/4mm needles, making a thing like fishing net. It really is fascinating because the pattern is random—it's basically stockinette with inconsistent cables (tangles) here and there to make each "sweater" unique. You can download a pdf of the pattern or go online and open up a file each time you wish to knit, and every time you open this file, the cables are different. Keeps you guessing.

I decided to take Katie's challenge, especially since the designer said mistakes are acceptable: "if you make a “mistake”, just forget about it and keep going!" I can do that. I contacted Habu Textiles in New York and ordered three spools of silk thread blended with steel—yes, steel, which gives it a bit of memory—and they were very friendly and shipped my order as soon as they could.

(the one sleeve with a spool from Habu)

I have struggled a little because working with such thin fiber means I have to wear reading glasses to knit, but it's going well, I think. All I have at this point is a single sleeve, but I'll keep going. Sea Tangles. Who would have guessed you could knit a pullover sweater with a wad of string?